Wild Places

I have been reading Robert MacFarlane's book 'The Wild Places', accounts of his explorations and journeys through wild and remote Britain. Each chapter relates to a wild place and so an element of wildness - forest, mountain, moor etc. As he gets more confident he talks of a map of these places, partly geographical and partly emotional, and the endpapers are printed with such an imaginary map of his wildness. His confidence allows him to broaden his search from geographical wildness to exploring our relationship with what 'wild' means. He is an interesting and quite open writer; even so the notes for his books must be considerably longer than the books themselves.

Next Monday, 1st September, I am climbing the Stiperstones in Shropshire with Alistair Tucker. This is the first collaboration between us. I will write and he will paint, and together we will produce responses to the same landscape at the same time. I am delighted to say that Alistair has also agreed to come on board the Wordsworth project, so he will be down here later in the year when we start walking. I think that RM's book will add to the background of the Stiperstones day, focussing my mind on elements of wildness in the landscape.