Dominick Tyler

Land and language have always been closely intertwined. A lot of writers and poets have sought wilderness and isolation for inspiration, drawing on the natural beauty to form their thoughts and feelings into simple words of immense beauty. But it does work the other way too, as people looked to describe their surrounding to others they created unique and specific words that apply to landscape and nature, weather and place.

In a similar vien to Landmarks, Tyler has travelled the British countryside seeking these incredibly local words for very specific items. There are delights as shivver, zawn, spume and haaris. And with all of these words is a short description, and a beautiful photos taken by the author. In fact, for me, it is the photos that lift this from a good book to another level. They show the feature described, and in a lot of cases they are excellent compositions. For some there is a grid reference so you could find it too.

Well worth reading for anyone who loves the natural world, it is a beautiful book.… (mer)