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Landmarks

By: Robert Macfarlane
Narrated by: Roy McMillan
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Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Landmarks, a fascinating exploration of the relationship between language and landscapes by Robert Macfarlane, read by Roy McMillan.

Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. It is a field guide to the literature of nature and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to describe land, nature, and weather.

Travelling from Cumbria to the Cairngorms and exploring the landscapes of Roger Deakin, J. A. Baker, Nan Shepherd, and others, Robert Macfarlane shows that language, well used, is a keen way of knowing landscape and a vital means of coming to love it.

The audiobook version contains an exclusive bonus chapter - a recording of Finlay MacLeod (novelist, historian, broadcaster, archivist, and one of the dedicatees of Landmarks) reading words and definitions from his Peat Glossary for the Isle of Lewis.

This hoard of rare and evocative terms was one of the inspiring documents for the book.

Finlay's voice is also used as a divider between chapters, and the other glossaries in the text are bracketed with appropriate sound effects.

©2015 Robert Macfarlane (P)2015 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about Landmarks

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The Very Definition of a Forever Book!

I love this book. I brought it in hardback too. I dip into it every now and then. or listen to it often. It is always satisfies. A quiet but impassioned thrill. The narration simply could not be more perfect either. This is the pinnacle of audio book as MacFarlane is to literary natural history writing. Speaks to the soul.

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Mind blowing

I’m not sure if I fell more in love with landscape or with his powers of description. Dazzling prose. Wonderful list of nature writers reviewed.

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Didn’t want it to end

This book was a portal of imagination and wonder into nature. It’s like the author was able to compile a still life of words that are both beautiful and haunting - as sadly our connection to nature fades. Beautifully written and superbly narrated, I deeply loved this book. I will be looking for more of Macfarlane’s work to quicken the heart and fire the spirit.

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Fantastic and Brilliantly Presented

I recommend this for anyone who shares a love of land, language and literature. Robert Macfarlane's writing expertly fascinates and informs. The discussion is artfully presented. Roy McMillan's performance fits well and it is an incredibly enjoyable piece of non-fiction. It will take you on a journey into landscape and leaves you reconsidering the conventional ways you usually see and discuss the 'natural' world.

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Mesmerizing

When I first downloaded this I was dismayed that the glossary was included. The idea of line upon line of what amounted to an index was daunting. And yet...though it is a list, read out, it has the romance and mystery of a liturgy, but of the poetry of language, reminiscent of the mesmerizing comfort of the shipping news on the BBC. I am in love with the romance of these words, linked with extraordinary landscapes.

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Loss of language

Thought-provoking thesis that loss of language affects how we see and relate to landscape. Frightening that people, especially children, have less and less experience of freedom in, and understanding of, the environment. The final chapter and its emphasis on children and their interpretations of environment makes one realise how close humanity is to loss of the essential links with what sustains us. A beautiful book!

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.