The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane: A Book Review
Robert Macfarlane, a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, has written books that have captivated a general audience in a way that is rare in the academic world. I say this because I’ve come to understand that in academia many years can be spent working on books which only 4 people read. The Wild Places was written with a general audience in mind, but its foundation in carefully studied geology and environmental science is apparent and gives it a certain educational value which I tend to enjoy. It isn’t just a collection of one man’s musings on his weekend walks, it’s deeply felt and considered prose that gives life to landscapes and expertly weaves in the environmental concerns that trouble us today.
The Wild Places was my introduction to the sub-genre created by combining nature writing and travel writing. If you haven’t heard of this genre or read anything from it, this book is a great place to start. It has won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award, and the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Festival. It was also short-listed for a number of awards including the Dolman Best Travel Book Award and the Orion Book Award which is a prize founded “to recognize books that deepen our connection to the natural world, present new ideas about our relationship with nature, and achieve excellence in writing.”
The Premise of The Wild Places
Reluctant to accept the premise that all the wilderness in Britain and Ireland has disappeared, Macfarlane sets out on a journey to visit the wild places which he believes still remain on this archipelago. He dedicates each of the 15 chapters to a particular landscape, exploring its characteristics, traveling through it and often spending the night. Immersing himself in order to more deeply commune with nature. The chapters end with Macfarlane analyzing his experience and sharing his thoughts on the effect the landscape can have on those who are willing to step outside and reconnect with it.
At the core of his book is the idea that one’s environment is capable of eliciting emotions. He speaks of forests having a sense of magic, of being “a place of inbetweenness, somewhere one might slip from one world to another, or one time to a former.” Valleys become sanctuaries, cradling you within their steep walls and providing a separate, secret world. The largest mountains, rugged and sharp, uninviting in every way somehow manage to captivate our adventurous minds and call to us. The allure to reach the summit is followed by betrayal with its uninhabitable clime and fierce indifference to our existence.
In my little piece of England, East Anglia, the land is flat and vast. You can see in every direction for miles. Macfarlane writes about spaces such as these, too. Historically, he writes, humans have had a troubled relationship with these landscapes because there’s been “difficulty… making the acquaintance of flat terrains. They seem to return the eye’s enquiries unanswered, or swallow all attempts at interpretation.”
They seem to return the eye’s enquiries unanswered, or swallow all attempts at interpretation.
robert macfarlane the wild places
I would find it incredibly easy to fall into patterns of description which would ultimately leave me with a book describing landscapes in mostly the same way over and over again. Macfarlane, however, has managed to allow the landscape to influence the rhythm and language of each chapter so that each takes on a distinct character. His prose is poetic, deeply descriptive, and serves as evidence of his own connection with nature.
Connecting with Nature
The relationship Macfarlane has with nature is admirable – sleeping on ice, sand, stone, and soil, all in an extraordinary attempt to experience nature as it is and not as we imagine or hope for it to be. I was all at once jealous of his adventures and quite grateful for my cozy, warm bed. It is extremely unlikely that I will ever bathe in icy water or feel comfortable enough to maroon myself on an island surrounded by rising tides, but each and every chapter inspired me to get outside and look at nature with a renewed curiosity.
In fact, each time I put the book down I was left feeling desperate to reconnect with nature. I could finally see the massive hole its absence had left. Our busy lives are lived mostly in concrete cities and artificially lit houses, oblivious to the shreds of nature that have just about managed to exist in the less than ideal circumstances we have provided. The ways of the world have become mysterious to us; the seasons, the tides, and the phases of the moon carry on with very little acknowledgment from modern civilization. Macfarlane writes that “we have in many ways forgotten what the world feels like” and I hate to admit that there is much truth in this. Perhaps it’s high time we remember.
The Definition of Wildness
Macfarlane’s journey began with extreme landscapes in some of the most remote parts of Britain and Ireland. Ynys Enlli an island off the coast of Wales with dangerous tides. The Valley of Coruisk on the Atlantic coast of the Isle of Skye. Rannoch Moor on the edge of the Scottish Highlands with a “reputation for hostility at all times of the year”. His search was focused on landscapes which had been left alone and uninhabited, separated from history and the influence of man.
As the story progresses, Macfarlane experiences an unexpected shift in his definition of wildness, due in part to the influence of fellow writer and friend Roger Deakin. The change begins in the Burren in Southwest Ireland with both of them lying belly-down on large limestone pavements peering into a gryke. Roger points out that this micro-ecology filled with the likes of ferns and mosses, cranesbills and plantains is a wild place. “It is as beautiful and complex, perhaps more so, than any glen or bay or peak. Miniature, yes, but fabulously wild.”
“Miniature, yes, but fabulously wild.”
Robert Macfarlane the wild places
The Greater Context
The Wild Places, then, is a tale of adventures in the wilderness of Britain and Ireland, both at the farthest reaches of the islands and just beyond our door steps. But that isn’t where the story ends. Macfarlane uses his experiences as a way to discuss the deeper concerns of climate change, the relationship between man and nature, the modern disconnect, and our difficulty imagining that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.
It encouraged me to reflect on my own relationship with nature and how those interactions shape me and my environment. It revealed to me the dangers that come with thinking of wildness as something that is distant, only existing where humans do not. If I don’t accept the presence of the wild in my garden, the hedgerows, the fields, and the beaches of Norfolk, then how can I take responsibility for preserving it?
More Robert Macfarlane Books
If you enjoyed this book you may like these books also written by Robert Macfarlane:
- Mountains of the Mind
- The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
- Landmarks
- The Gifts of Reading
- The Lost Words: A Spell Book (with Jackie Morris)
- Underland: A Deep Time Journey
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