the lost words robert macfarlane & jackie morris

Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. To order a copy for £17 go to or call 03. The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris is published by Hamish Hamilton (£20). Re-enchantment, re-engagement and conservation of the natural world is ultimately only going to be possible if we retain the language with which to make it happen. I once asked a magician what he considered to be the defining characteristic of his art. The Lost Words is a beautiful book and, in terms of ideas, an important one. Take the brilliant “Magpie Manifesto: / Argue Every Toss! / Gossip, Bicker, Yak and Snicker All Day Long!” Not only are the word and the bird restored and celebrated, but the spirit and nature and the clatter of the magpie are conserved within its lines. The spells carry the spirit of their subject in their structure. It is a book for adults and children, for adults to read with children. The acrostic spell-poems are designed to be read out loud. A heated debate in the national press ensued, both for and against the lost words, and the collaboration between Morris and Macfarlane was born.Īdder: ‘Unless we have a word for something, we are unable to conceive of it.’ Photograph: Jackie Morris “There is a shocking, proven connection between the decline in natural play and the decline in children’s wellbeing,” the letter said. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a groundswell of opposition to the word cull began to grow and, in 2015, the debate reached a tipping point when an open letter to the OJD, coordinated by the naturalist Laurence Rose, was signed by artists and writers including Margaret Atwood, Sara Maitland, Michael Morpurgo and Andrew Motion along with the brilliant illustrator Jackie Morris and the hugely acclaimed wordsmith, word collector, and defender of the natural world, Robert Macfarlane. However, the philosopher AJ Ayer introduced a generation to the notion that unless we have a word for something, we are unable to conceive of it, and that there is a direct relationship between our imagination, our ability to have ideas about things, and our vocabulary.

The dictionary’s guidelines require that it reflect “the current frequency of words in daily language of children”. I n 2007, the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary introduced new words such as “broadband” while others, describing the natural world, disappeared.

The lost words robert macfarlane & jackie morris