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Alex Sarll's Reviews > The Lost Spells

The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane
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The sequel to The Lost Words – the only Macfarlane book I've not read, despite it quite possibly being his best seller (I always assumed I'd happen across a copy in a library one day, back when that was still a thing that happened). These are intended as summonings to bring back the natural world, which made me a little puzzled why the book would begin with fox, moth, daisy – surely ones to file alongside humans, ants and the coronavirus among the few life-forms still in ample supply in 2020s Britain. But it makes sense to start a grimoire easy, doesn't it, before moving on to the more rarely seen beasts, the hares and curlews? I can see how the poems would be joys to read aloud, evoking as they do the chitter-chatter of jackdaws, the effortless twists and turns of swifts. Jackie Morris' pictures are a perfect complement, with just that mixture of the cosy and the numinous (the Estonians have a word for it) that I always love in nature illustrations. The overall mood is often bittersweet, as how couldn't it be given what we've done to nature, but most of all celebratory - and at least once, in the dialogue between woodpecker and badger, which could almost be a children's book unto itself, very funny.

(Netgalley ARC)
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Reading Progress

September 19, 2020 – Shelved
Started Reading
September 20, 2020 – Finished Reading

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