The Lost Words
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  • Published: 18 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241985229
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

The Lost Words

Rediscover our natural world with this spellbinding book

Formats & editions
Hardback
2 Oct 2017
Audiobook
18 Oct 2018
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From Acorn to Weasel: a gorgeous spellbook celebrating the magic and wonder of the natural world told by iconic voices of modern Britain through a stunning audio soundscape

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, read by Edith Bowman, Guy Garvey, Cerys Matthews and Benjamin Zephaniah.

All over the country, there are words disappearing from children's lives. Words like Dandelion, Otter, Bramble, Acorn and Lark represent the natural world of childhood, a rich landscape of discovery and imagination that is fading from children's minds.

The Lost Words stands against the disappearance of wild childhood. It is a joyful celebration of the poetry of nature words and the living glory of our distinctive, British countryside. With acrostic spell-poems by peerless wordsmith Robert Macfarlane this enchanting audiobook captures the irreplaceable magic of language and nature for all ages.

Across a rich and vivid natural soundscape, Edith Bowman, Guy Garvey, Cerys Matthews and Benjamin Zephaniah, iconic voices of modern Britain, bring the magic of nature and language to listeners. Through captivating readings, wonderful natural recordings and more, the audio edition of The Lost Words is a stunning celebration of the nature and the power of language.

Includes listening notes by Chris Watson, wildlife and natural phenomena recordist, as a downloadable PDF.
  • Published: 18 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241985229
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
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About the author

Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane is the author of Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places, The Old Ways, Landmarks, and The Lost Words, co-created with Jackie Morris. Mountains of the Mind won the Guardian First Book Award and the Somerset Maugham Award and The Wild Places won the Boardman-Tasker Award. Both books have been adapted for television by the BBC. The Lost Words won the Books Are My Bag Beautiful Book Award and the Hay Festival Book of the Year. He is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and writes on environmentalism, literature and travel for publications including the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The New York Times.

Also by Robert Macfarlane

Is a River Alive?
Ness
The Wild Cards
The Gifts of Reading
Underland
Landmarks
The Lost Spells
See all

Praise for The Lost Words

Sumptuously illustrated... the poems or nature summoning spells are indebted to Gerard Manley Hopkins with rich alliteration, word-play and compound adjectives [and] the illustrations make plants and creatures luminous against backgrounds of gold leaf

The Sunday Times

One of the most striking and poignant picture books of the season...this giant tome contains not only beautiful illustrations but a haunting series of poems that read like a summoning back of the wild...a book in which every page seems like an act of love

Herald

Sumptuous...a book combining meticulous wordcraft with exquisite illustrations deftly restores language describing the natural world to the children's lexicon... The Lost Words is a beautiful book and an important one

The Observer

A breathtaking book... Jackie Morris has created something that you could spend all day looking at... This is the kind of complexity that can enthral a child as much as an adult... Refreshingly accessible, slightly magical

New Statesman

My top book of the year... It is one of those children's books for ages up to 99 years. The lost words are those my generation and earlier ones used every day and which are fast disappearing, and Macfarlane's aim is to resurrect the everyday glories of our language. May he succeed

Susan Hill

Gilded and glorious, Jackie Morris's paintings illustrate Robert Macfarlane's acrostic poems in The Lost Words, one of the years loveliest books for all ages over 10

The Sunday Times

Rapturously received celebration of nature

The New Statesman

Macfarlane is a changemaker... he has made nature-writing populis6t and big-selling. Morris's paintings are beautiful - at once familiar and other. A contender for book of the year

The Big Issue

Deeply reflective and gorgeously illustrated...Morris's paintings of wildlife echo the complexity and vibrancy of Macfarlane's poetry

Publisher's Weekly

One of the publishing sensations of recent times is The Lost Words

Daily Mail

Stunning . . . Addressing the disappearance of everyday nature words and a ‘wild childhood’ from kids’ lives, The Lost Words celebrates the magic of the natural world in a superbly soft manner, much like an enchanting love letter to Mother Nature

Imagine5