Robert MacFarlane is precise in presenting his sprawling hunger for the wild. He sleeps out on a beach in a raging storm, on a bare mountaintop in the cold, and in all manner of haunted woods and rocks. His prose is refined, carefully deployed as if he were doing microsurgery. His wanderlust is outsized. It’s this combination of restraint and passion that gives The Wild Places its fine finish. Kind of a poor man's British Craig Childs? I enjoyed vicariously visiting the moors, holloways and woods he describes. And he quotes some hot passages from other sources, like the monks of remote isles. But he seems a bit precious, a bit 'Look at me, I can climb a peak, sleep on an ice floe, go to the library, AND write about it!' In short, a pale shadow of Childs' effortless blend of knowledge, lyrical yet accurate evocation of landscape and peoples, and the occasional compelling personal reflection -- but, a not bad travelogue of some wildernesses of the UK.
What do You think about De Laatste Wildernis (2007)?
A personal account of the search for wildness in Britain...a thoughtful book by an adventurous soul.
—naruhaku
well-researched, some great quotes, some wonderful places.
—schuh
