James Campbell Author

  ROBERT MACFARLANE I first discovered Rob MacFarlane when I read his book Landmarks about five or six years ago. I think it was reviewed by Resurgence Magazine which is where I get a lot of book recommendations. The book explores various examples of language that is used to describe place. Not only did I love the book, I also bought all the books that he talks about in Landmarks. I subsequently read The Peregrine and Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez – which I also really enjoyed. One of the things Robert MacFarlane does is talk about words from particular dialects. My favourite word that he introduced me to was smeuse . This is a Suffolk word for a small gap in a hedge made by the repeated passage of wild animals. The great thing is that once you know this, you see more of them. If we know what things are called, we are more likely to be able to save them. There's also a great way of describing kestrels but I can' t put that one on this website. Of course, Robert's ...