Paul's Reviews > Landmarks

This is a difficult book to clearly categorise. It is a book about the natural world, about language to describe that natural world, but is also about the writers and in some cases friends, that he has learnt so much from in his journeys around the UK, up mountains and on long walks.

As he writes about those authors, Nan Shepherd, Roger Deakin, Richard Mabey and Richard Skelton, seminal writers that have provided so much influence, through their work and books, it comes across that this is as much about his formative years and the sense of wonder that nature has given him. Woven into their eulogies, are accounts of journeys taken to favourite places, icy cold lochs swum in, and natural and literary discoveries.

But it is also a call to arms. Part of this was prompted by the Oxford Junior Dictionary dropping certain words like acorn, mistletoe and kingfisher. These were removed as children no longer hear or feel or see these things; the replacements MP3, Blackberry and tablet, and objects that are used inside and alone. MacFarlane wants them to bring these words back in to normal use, by getting children to discover them for themselves, and use them in their own ways as they explore the landscape and their imaginations equally.

But more importantly, this is a reference, not complete, of local words to describe what people have been seeing around themselves for hundreds of years. There are words for places, water, weather, woods, rocks and animals. Drawn from all parts of the UK, Ireland and Jersey, some of these are familiar and others are brand new to me. They range from the brutally blunt, like 'turdstall' which means a substantial cowpat to 'huffling' which means sudden gust of wind. These lists punctuate the book, giving breathing spaces between the chapters, so you are not faced with the enormity of a huge list.

MacFarlane is one of my favourite writers, his poetic prose and keen observation skills mean that the mundane can become the interesting, and the beautiful the breathtaking. It is different to his other books, but it is equally significant. If you have a moment, take some time to read this and immerse yourself in the evocative language he has sown you on the other side of the hedge.