Landmarks

Landmarks is a pleasure to read, and lovely to dip into for random new words. I'm a blatant logophile, and living as I do on one of the Scottish islands I'm aware of both the specialist vocabulary that lingers on in such places, and of all the words that must have been lost down the years. I wander hills that are plotted on maps, and I think about how every tor, and every rushy hollow must have once been named. Without the words, such places become hazy - the big hill, the broad valley - and we lose the magic of place. To name the world is to enter fully into it - words genuinely have power. I'm delighted that amongst the treasures Robert Macfarlane visits is Nan Shepherd, whose elegiac portrayals of the Cairngorms are an especial favourite of mine. She, too, knew the value of the right word in the right place. "O burnie with the glass-white shiver/singing over stone". It wouldn't be right without the precise word for that stream in that place. If I have one complaint about Landmarks, it's that it's too unwieldy (and too lovely) to shove into my pack and take out among the hills, where the right word might be needed for a note, or a quick poem. If only the book were formatted differently - say, along the lines of The Jolly Postman - with pockets filled with little books; each of the glossaries as a tiny, pocketable book, preferably in a weatherproof material! Still, it sits permanently by my bedside, so that before I lie down I can open its pages and enter briefly into the mystery of place - see in my mind's eye a hazy hover of haar on the horizon, or pick up a chucky stone to tuck into the interstices of a tumbled bothy wall - an image to carry me down into sleep.

A perfect book if you enjoy the countryside and enjoy the English language. By enjoying the countryside, I don't mean a nice day out but an interest that can identify some birds and insects, can spot a track in a field or a gap in a hedgerow, and always takes home litter and shuts gates behind you. By enjoying the English language, yes, it is wonderfully written with scholarship and originality, but I am referring to regional and dialect and specialised words for things or activities relating to the countryside, from yesterday and today, with a view to which might be retained in the future. With words such as 'acorn’ and ‘buttercup’ being dropped in favour of adding ‘broadband’ and ‘cut and paste’ to the Oxford Junior Dictionary, and flora and fauna being endangered or extinct annually, this book is a treasure. I don't like the quality of paper and print in my paperback so I may treat myself to a hardback.

The previous books by Robert Macfarlane have been enticing reads with a natural progression that flow well, and have been beautiful lovely page turners. This is a rather different tome, more academic, probably easier to dip into now and again for reference, and I found it hard going at times reading it through from start to finish in one go. It is a more academic treatise, I found it sometimes a bit too clever for comfortable reading. I felt the structure was all a bit stop start, with the glossary at the end of each chapter a bit random in the way it was organised. There also seems to be a rather patchy geographical coverage, with some areas rich seams of local words, but others nearby were notable by lack of entries, it does not seem comprehensive, but rather a work in progress. There are 11 chapters, each relating to a different landscape or ecological niche, with a focus on a main previous author who had excelled in exploring each habitat in depth . Some of these worked for me well and gave a fascinating insight, such as writer Roger Deakin on Woods and Water, that Robert met and got to know well and build a close and symbiotic relationship with. Others are historical so secondhand accounts, like John Muir who was responsible for establishing the first National Parks in the world in the United states through his endeavour and influence on politicians, still fascinating and influential. However ,some of the other authors featured in some chapters I did not find so likeable, or interesting, and at times I found the text slow going and dense, lacking the sparkle in previous books that marked them out as truly something special. I can respect the research that has gone into producing this, but it is not a book that I loved reading and enjoyed in the same way as his earlier books that I thought were stunning and truly special. For me personally, overall I ended up feeling rather disappointed and frustrated, and it was a bit of a struggle to get through this. Some of his found words are lovely and intriguing, but there also seems to be a lot of minor variation on a theme. A bit of a curate's egg, good in parts, but marred for me by a disjointed structure, and a more academic treatise that at times did not flow well and got bogged down in detail and rather convoluted. This is probably a reflection on my own intellectual shortcomings and attention span, but I hope this book is a bit of a side project and he returns to more readable accessible love of the British landscape for future books. By no means bad, there is still a lot to admire, but it was certainly not my favourite book by this author .

If you like words, nature and the Great Outdoors you'll enjoy this little gem. MacFarlane unearths all sorts of words for different natural occurrences and introduces us to some of his favourite nature writers. He rails against the loss of nature vocabulary to the point where the mainstream has been left with dull generic terms like field, hedge, wood, hill etc. There is a rich body of words out there from sailors, farmers, shepherds, trekkers and country folk and Macfarlane's aim is to document these before they are lost forever. One of the words I've taken from it is 'smeuse' - a Sussex term for a small worn away tunnel or entrance in a hedge caused by a creature going back and forth. MacFarlane makes the point that by giving things a name we are more likely to notice them, look out for them - meaning the way we experience nature is enhanced. A truly enjoyable, life-affirming work

Lo ho preso dopo aver cominciato a seguire per caso l’autore su twitter. Una scoperta: lettura molto particolare, per via dell’argomento, ma molto molto piacevole.

Estupendo libro

This is a magical book. It is both a collection of landscape words from the British Isles and a meditation on writing, mountains and landscapes. It is not a quick read but something that satiates after a few pages, requiring digestion, or rereading. The place words are from a vanishing time when we knew our land like we now know how to get about town. The words shimmer with beauty even though I suspect I am making a poor job of the Gaelic pronunciations. I thought I was a pretty good writer but reading this is humbling in a happy way, taking pleasure in his writing and glad that there are people who can write like this. If you love nature, if you love words, if you think there is more than one way to climb a mountain (p. 63), this is a book that will give you pleasure.

Si te gusta la el paisaje y toda su lírica condensada en una palabra, este es el libro. Vengo siguiendo a R. Macfarlane como lector habitual de The Guardian y en concreto sus mini ensayos sobre naturaleza. Es una lástima que ninguno de sus libros, ni los de tantos escritores ingleses que describen con sutili precisión y cariño sobre la naturaleza estén traducidos al español.

This is a wonderful book, particularly for nature - and word - lovers. I liked it so much I bought a copy for a friend as well!