The Wild Places

New
Paperback
2010
$9.94

From the cliffs of Cape Wrath, to the holloways of Dorset, the storm-beaches of Norfolk, the saltmarshes and estuaries of Essex, and the moors of Rannoch and the Pennines, his journeys become the conductors of people and cultures, past and present, who have had intense relationships with these places. At once a wonder voyage, an adventure story, an exercise in visionary cartography, and a work of natural history, it is written in a style and a form as unusual as the places with which it is concerned. It also tells the story of a friendship, and of a loss. It mixes history, memory and landscape in a strange and beautiful evocation of wildness and its vital importance.

Synopsis

From the cliffs of Cape Wrath, to the holloways of Dorset, the storm-beaches of Norfolk, the saltmarshes and estuaries of Essex, and the moors of Rannoch and the Pennines, his journeys become the conductors of people and cultures, past and present, who have had intense relationships with these places. At once a wonder voyage, an adventure story, an exercise in visionary cartography, and a work of natural history, it is written in a style and a form as unusual as the places with which it is concerned. It also tells the story of a friendship, and of a loss. It mixes history, memory and landscape in a strange and beautiful evocation of wildness and its vital importance.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: First Thus
Publisher: Granta Books
Published: 04 Feb 2010
ISBN 10: 1847082009
ISBN 13: 9781847082008

Media Reviews

a The Wild Places boldly celebrates places that arenat supposed to exist, and does so in prose that is at times very nearly as vivid and beautiful as the thing itself.a
aRebecca Solnit
a Prose as precise as this is not just evocative. It is a manifesto in itself. Macfarlaneas language urges us to gaze more closely at the wonders around us, to take notice, to remind ourselves how thrillingly alive a spell in the wild can make us seem.a
a The Sunday Times (UK)
aA formidable consideration by a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence a poetry, really a with the breathless ease of a master angler, a writer whose ideas and reach transcend the physical region he exploresa]the natural world swells with meaning through Macfarlaneas devoted observations, which can be both minutely detailed and vast in scopea]like the wild it parses, [this book] quietly returns us to ourselves.a
a The New York Times Book Review
aInspiringa]Macfarlane brings these landscapes to pulsing lifea]His precision in apprehending the world is a salutary lesson in and of itselfa]His descriptions have created a new map of Britain and Ireland in my mind. And like pebbles in a pond, those descriptions are now altering the way I look at the world immediately around me.. this is the final gift of Macfarlaneas wild places: they illuminate the wild wonder of our everyday world.a
a National Geographic Traveler
a The Wild Places boldly celebrates places that arenat supposed to exist, and does so in prose that is at times very nearly as vivid and beautiful as the thing itself.a
aRebecca Solnit
a Prose as precise as this is not just evocative. It is a manifesto in itself. Macfarlaneas language urges us to gaze more closely at the wonders around us, to take notice, to remind ourselves how thrillingly alive a spell in the wild can make us seem.a
a The Sunday Times (UK)
A formidable consideration by a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence poetry, really with the breathless ease of a master angler, a writer whose ideas and reach transcend the physical region he explores the natural world swells with meaning through Macfarlane s devoted observations, which can be both minutely detailed and vast in scope like the wild it parses, [this book] quietly returns us to ourselves.
The New York Times Book Review
Inspiring Macfarlane brings these landscapes to pulsing life His precision in apprehending the world is a salutary lesson in and of itself His descriptions have created a new map of Britain and Ireland in my mind. And like pebbles in a pond, those descriptions are now altering the way I look at the world immediately around me.. this is the final gift of Macfarlane s wild places: they illuminate the wild wonder of our everyday world.
National Geographic Traveler
The Wild Places boldly celebrates places that aren t supposed to exis
?A formidable consideration by a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence ? poetry, really ? with the breathless ease of a master angler, a writer whose ideas and reach transcend the physical region he explores?the natural world swells with meaning through Macfarlane's devoted observations, which can be both minutely detailed and vast in scope?like the wild it parses, [this book] quietly returns us to ourselves.?
? The New York Times Book Review
?Inspiring?Macfarlane brings these landscapes to pulsing life?His precision in apprehending the world is a salutary lesson in and of itself?His descriptions have created a new map of Britain and Ireland in my mind. And like pebbles in a pond, those descriptions are now altering the way I look at the world immediately around me.. this is the final gift of Macfarlane's wild places: they illuminate the wild wonder of our everyday world.?
? National Geographic Traveler
? The Wild Places boldly celebrates places that aren?t

Author Bio

Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination (2003), won the Guardian First Book Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Robert Macfarlane is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He lives in Cambridge with his family.