--- product_id: 5124137 title: "The Wild Places (Landscapes)" price: "£13.92" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/5124137-the-wild-places-landscapes store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # The Wild Places (Landscapes) **Price:** £13.92 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Wild Places (Landscapes) - **How much does it cost?** £13.92 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/5124137-the-wild-places-landscapes) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description From The New York Times bestselling author of Is A River Alive and Underland , an "eloquent (and compulsively readable) reminder that, though we're laying waste the world, nature still holds sway over much of the earth's surface." --Bill McKibben Winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and a finalist for the Orion Book Award Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? That is the question that Robert Macfarlane poses to himself as he embarks on a series of breathtaking journeys through some of the archipelago's most remarkable landscapes. He climbs, walks, and swims by day and spends his nights sleeping on cliff-tops and in ancient meadows and wildwoods. With elegance and passion he entwines history, memory, and landscape in a bewitching evocation of wildness and its vital importance. Review: "And know the place for the first time..." - Beechwood to Beechwood. The first book of Robert Macfarlane's that I read, almost a year ago now, was The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot . As I do for truly exceptional books, I gave it a "6-star" rating, and knew I would be reading more of his works. With "The Wild Places" I was again dazzled, as well as humbled by this rich, well-written and informative work. Humbled? Yes, Macfarlane is still under 40, yet has the erudition of a well-educated and curious person twice his age. (It does make me even more regret all that time I wasted in committee meetings!) He knows the natural world - well - identifying the flora and fauna, not just as a bird watcher might, with guide in hand. It is like they are old acquaintances. He is on equally familiar terms with the inanimate world, the one of the land itself, its rocks and soil layers. Being in Britain, naturally there is a lot of water, in various forms and states of agitation. He weaves into his depictions of his travels to the remote parts of Britain, the stories of others who have lived there, and often traveled far from their native locales. Well-known writers are a mental companion for him, and they are frequently referenced. So too, some less well-known ones; Macfarlane has now placed Bagnold's The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (Dover Earth Science) on my reading list. The Sunday Times of London spoke of his precise prose. And so it is, as well as fresh. Right from the beginning, he draws the reader in with fresh expressions like "Rooks haggle." And he stirred some very dormant memories. How long ago was it since I'd routinely climb trees? Like most of us, just a kid, and for some inexplicable reason, I stopped. Macfarlane, in his thirties, can't resist, and continues, seeking out a favorite beech tree not that far from his home in Cambridge. Trees, and those who love them. Xerxes is normally depicted as one of the "bad guys" of history... a ruthless "oriental" despot, off to crush those freedom-living Greek states. Maybe so, but Macfarlane relates that he loved sycamore trees, and would stop his entire army on the march, to savor some particularly appealing ones. Macfarlane structures his work around various geographical features, such as island, valley, moor, forest, river-mouth, cape, ridge, holloway, storm-beach, saltmarsh and tor. The seeming exception is "grave,", but in ways it fits, as the author describes a peninsula in County Claire, in the west of Ireland, and the limestone features, some composed of human bones from the millenniums of burials there, which includes those who died in the 1840's as a result of famine. The author presents a chilling account of the cynicism of the landowners that were indifferent to these deaths. Likewise, in the chapter entitled "River-Mouth" I found his depictions of "the Clearances" enlightening (the landowners in northern Scotland forcibly relocated entire villages in order to enhance their ability to graze sheep.) Seeing those "pleasant" pastoral scenes of sheep grazing today, Macfarlane notes: "a caution against romanticism and blitheness." My first experience with a "Holloway" was walking a section of the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. Less than half a century of travel on the Trace had depressed the road surface at least 6 feet in some areas. With thousands of years of travel along foot and animal paths in Britain, Holloways literally crisscross the isles, but are also largely "invisible." He actively seeks them out, with his own "maps" of the terrain, so different from road maps that give us a very one-dimensional picture of the countryside. The author sleeps out in the open, in remote places, and no doubt is more "alive" for doing so, truly feeling the natural world. He rarely complains about adverse conditions, and if so, only wryly and obliquely: "But you never mentioned the midges, Sweeney, I thought reproachfully..." (p.59). He quotes numerous American writers, including an icon of the American West, Wallace Stegner, on the importance of wild places to the human psyche. Roger Deakin was a life-long friend, and many of Macfarlane's travels were in his company. Deakin was another glorious eccentric, who appreciated the natural world. His most famous book is Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain . Deakin left us far too early, a victim of an aggressive brain tumor, at the age of 63. An apt eulogy from Macfarlane: "He was an expert in age: in its charisma and its worth. Everything he owned was worn, used, re-used. If anyone would have known how to age well, it would have been Roger." Macfarlane end his book, coming full-circle, as the beginning of this review suggests: coming back to the Beechwoods. He quotes a poem by T.S. Eliot whose message is that we may explore far places, and in the end, see the familiar places for the first time. Likewise, Macfarlane realizes that the wild places are not just in the far off Outer Hebrides, but can also be quite close to his home in Cambridge. Another 6-star impressive work. Review: A Magically Wonderful Book - The Wild Places is the second of Robert MacFarlane’s books that I have read, the other being Old Ways, his most recent book. I enjoyed The Wild Places even more than Old Ways, which I thought was wonderful. In this book, MacFarlane visits a number of places in the British Isles, each of which is in some sense wild, in order to experience wildness and explore its nature. In each of them, the reader travels with MacFarlane, carried by his precise, poetic prose that gives us intimate access to his observations and feelings. Interspersed between MacFarlane’s detailed and illuminating descriptions are accounts of local history and thoughts that the landscape, wildlife, and his experiences have promoted. Each region that he visits is different: From island to tor, bookended by a favorite beech tree that stands near to his house. There is a quiet continuity to the book. The journeys are described in the sequence in which he made them, over the course of a year. As the year passes, our understanding of wildness evolves, along with MacFarlane’s, from that of remote places separated from humanity to that of colonizing, evolving nature itself that can thrive in and around human spaces, in crevices, hedges, and ditches. MacFarlane’s search for the meaning of wildness is interesting and thought-provoking but, for me, the wonder of the book lies in MacFarlane’s ability to feel the landscape and, through the beauty of his writing, to communicate those feelings to his reader. This book will nourish, delight, and inspire anyone with a love of the natural world. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #537,212 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #22 in Ecotourism Travel Guides #55 in General Great Britain Travel Guides #113 in Nature Writing & Essays | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,293 Reviews | ## Images ![The Wild Places (Landscapes) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81nKf56fq6L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "And know the place for the first time..." *by J***I on August 22, 2014* Beechwood to Beechwood. The first book of Robert Macfarlane's that I read, almost a year ago now, was The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot . As I do for truly exceptional books, I gave it a "6-star" rating, and knew I would be reading more of his works. With "The Wild Places" I was again dazzled, as well as humbled by this rich, well-written and informative work. Humbled? Yes, Macfarlane is still under 40, yet has the erudition of a well-educated and curious person twice his age. (It does make me even more regret all that time I wasted in committee meetings!) He knows the natural world - well - identifying the flora and fauna, not just as a bird watcher might, with guide in hand. It is like they are old acquaintances. He is on equally familiar terms with the inanimate world, the one of the land itself, its rocks and soil layers. Being in Britain, naturally there is a lot of water, in various forms and states of agitation. He weaves into his depictions of his travels to the remote parts of Britain, the stories of others who have lived there, and often traveled far from their native locales. Well-known writers are a mental companion for him, and they are frequently referenced. So too, some less well-known ones; Macfarlane has now placed Bagnold's The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (Dover Earth Science) on my reading list. The Sunday Times of London spoke of his precise prose. And so it is, as well as fresh. Right from the beginning, he draws the reader in with fresh expressions like "Rooks haggle." And he stirred some very dormant memories. How long ago was it since I'd routinely climb trees? Like most of us, just a kid, and for some inexplicable reason, I stopped. Macfarlane, in his thirties, can't resist, and continues, seeking out a favorite beech tree not that far from his home in Cambridge. Trees, and those who love them. Xerxes is normally depicted as one of the "bad guys" of history... a ruthless "oriental" despot, off to crush those freedom-living Greek states. Maybe so, but Macfarlane relates that he loved sycamore trees, and would stop his entire army on the march, to savor some particularly appealing ones. Macfarlane structures his work around various geographical features, such as island, valley, moor, forest, river-mouth, cape, ridge, holloway, storm-beach, saltmarsh and tor. The seeming exception is "grave,", but in ways it fits, as the author describes a peninsula in County Claire, in the west of Ireland, and the limestone features, some composed of human bones from the millenniums of burials there, which includes those who died in the 1840's as a result of famine. The author presents a chilling account of the cynicism of the landowners that were indifferent to these deaths. Likewise, in the chapter entitled "River-Mouth" I found his depictions of "the Clearances" enlightening (the landowners in northern Scotland forcibly relocated entire villages in order to enhance their ability to graze sheep.) Seeing those "pleasant" pastoral scenes of sheep grazing today, Macfarlane notes: "a caution against romanticism and blitheness." My first experience with a "Holloway" was walking a section of the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. Less than half a century of travel on the Trace had depressed the road surface at least 6 feet in some areas. With thousands of years of travel along foot and animal paths in Britain, Holloways literally crisscross the isles, but are also largely "invisible." He actively seeks them out, with his own "maps" of the terrain, so different from road maps that give us a very one-dimensional picture of the countryside. The author sleeps out in the open, in remote places, and no doubt is more "alive" for doing so, truly feeling the natural world. He rarely complains about adverse conditions, and if so, only wryly and obliquely: "But you never mentioned the midges, Sweeney, I thought reproachfully..." (p.59). He quotes numerous American writers, including an icon of the American West, Wallace Stegner, on the importance of wild places to the human psyche. Roger Deakin was a life-long friend, and many of Macfarlane's travels were in his company. Deakin was another glorious eccentric, who appreciated the natural world. His most famous book is Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain . Deakin left us far too early, a victim of an aggressive brain tumor, at the age of 63. An apt eulogy from Macfarlane: "He was an expert in age: in its charisma and its worth. Everything he owned was worn, used, re-used. If anyone would have known how to age well, it would have been Roger." Macfarlane end his book, coming full-circle, as the beginning of this review suggests: coming back to the Beechwoods. He quotes a poem by T.S. Eliot whose message is that we may explore far places, and in the end, see the familiar places for the first time. Likewise, Macfarlane realizes that the wild places are not just in the far off Outer Hebrides, but can also be quite close to his home in Cambridge. Another 6-star impressive work. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Magically Wonderful Book *by B***T on January 14, 2014* The Wild Places is the second of Robert MacFarlane’s books that I have read, the other being Old Ways, his most recent book. I enjoyed The Wild Places even more than Old Ways, which I thought was wonderful. In this book, MacFarlane visits a number of places in the British Isles, each of which is in some sense wild, in order to experience wildness and explore its nature. In each of them, the reader travels with MacFarlane, carried by his precise, poetic prose that gives us intimate access to his observations and feelings. Interspersed between MacFarlane’s detailed and illuminating descriptions are accounts of local history and thoughts that the landscape, wildlife, and his experiences have promoted. Each region that he visits is different: From island to tor, bookended by a favorite beech tree that stands near to his house. There is a quiet continuity to the book. The journeys are described in the sequence in which he made them, over the course of a year. As the year passes, our understanding of wildness evolves, along with MacFarlane’s, from that of remote places separated from humanity to that of colonizing, evolving nature itself that can thrive in and around human spaces, in crevices, hedges, and ditches. MacFarlane’s search for the meaning of wildness is interesting and thought-provoking but, for me, the wonder of the book lies in MacFarlane’s ability to feel the landscape and, through the beauty of his writing, to communicate those feelings to his reader. This book will nourish, delight, and inspire anyone with a love of the natural world. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beautiful land, at times depressing. *by C***R on February 3, 2023* Beautiful descriptions of the hiking through the natural elements, but at times ruthless descriptions of a dreadful history. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Wild Places (Landscapes) - The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (Landscapes) - Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/5124137-the-wild-places-landscapes](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/5124137-the-wild-places-landscapes) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-06-01*