The Wild Places is quietly adventurous, evocative, digressive, beautifully written - but, mostly, conveys a warming sense of poetic connection to the landscape.
We tracked Robert Macfarlane down to the small flat in Beijing where he is over-wintering with his young family. To his great credit he happily agreed to select, introduce and read some excerpts from his book for us. So, as the ice glazed the dirty puddles outside, his children removed temporarily from earshot and working on a cheap, locally bought dictation machine, he recorded four episodes. The sound quality isn't BBC crisp but we love these readings - think that what they lose in audio perfection is more than made up for by their sense of intimacy. It's like being read to by a brother or a good friend. Balm to the pre-Christmas-rush soul...
To listen online click below. To download right click (pc) or crtl/click (mac).
Episode 1: island Episode 2: forest Episode 3: ridge Episode 4: holloway
As part of this Christmas scheme we bought some signed first edition copies of "The Wild Places". We have now sold out of all copies. We'll give all the income (not just the profit) from the sale of these books to the John Muir Trust, a fine charity (chosen as recipient by Robert Macfarlane) that acts as a stalwart, active and enlightened guardian of Scottish wilderness.
Brigid Macleod and Pru Rowlandson at Granta for loving the idea and putting us in touch with Robert Macfarlane. Dear Natalie Lucas for all round, against-the-odds and against-the-clock technical help - without which all would have been lost. Robert Macfarlane - of course! And to his family for, hopefully, not minding our intrusion.