Landmarks

By: Robert Macfarlane

Narrated by: Roy McMillan

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Landmarks, a fascinating exploration of the relationship between language and landscapes by Robert Macfarlane, read by Roy McMillan.

Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. It is a field guide to the literature of nature and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to describe land, nature, and weather.

Travelling from Cumbria to the Cairngorms and exploring the landscapes of Roger Deakin, J. A. Baker, Nan Shepherd, and others, Robert Macfarlane shows that language, well used, is a keen way of knowing landscape and a vital means of coming to love it.

The audiobook version contains an exclusive bonus chapter - a recording of Finlay MacLeod (novelist, historian, broadcaster, archivist, and one of the dedicatees of Landmarks) reading words and definitions from his Peat Glossary for the Isle of Lewis.

This hoard of rare and evocative terms was one of the inspiring documents for the book.

Finlay's voice is also used as a divider between chapters, and the other glossaries in the text are bracketed with appropriate sound effects.

©2015 Robert Macfarlane (P)2015 Penguin Books Limited

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What would have made Landmarks better?

The book version is the way to read this. Words in numerous languages and unique meanings simply must be read, not followed at speaking speed. Audible did not describe this adequately.The book is good.

What other book might you compare Landmarks to and why?

Na

What aspect of Roy McMillan’s performance would you have changed?

Nothing.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The book is good; in the Audible version the text is difficult to follow.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

mesmerizing

Would you consider the audio edition of Landmarks to be better than the print version?

I sure the written word version of this book is good, but the audible version is outstanding!
Background ambient sound, this background "native voice" adds a ghost-like background as a transition change. The readers voice is gentle, yet dramatic. Highly recommend

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Perfection.

What a wonderful, stirring, enriching and delightful experience this book this is to listen to.
It is a forever book.
The narrator is a pleasure to listen to, and perfectly matched here.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Must Read/Listen

This book I own in all it's formats, Roy McMillan takes the work to a new level with his narration. Landmarks is the story of lost language lost culture in the age of tech we've lost our children have lost their natural abilities and this work seeks to point out the fallacy of losing our natural side. For any language lover, nature poet or outdoorsman, you'll find this book full of treasures hiding in each chapter and new each time you read or listen. Robert MacFarlane's talent for word and observation would make even the most treasured authors green with envy.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great book. Great narrator.

This is a wonderful book, and not an easy one to pull off as an audiobook in that fully half of it is a glossary! The narrator obviously did his homework with pronunciation of words in many different languages and dialects. In addition, each area of quotation seems to be in the distinctive voice of that quotation's author.

Could be and was said in the first few pages

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Flogs the loss of words to death. Languages are living things that reflect life as it is lived where it is lived. Words come and go. Do we need another book to tell us the obvious?

What could Robert Macfarlane have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not written the book

Would you be willing to try another one of Roy McMillan’s performances?

He was fine with the material he had to use.

Could you see Landmarks being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Never, please

Any additional comments?

move on.

2 of 11 people found this review helpful

Love it, but it's costing me a fortune!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. The author effortlessly takes you into his subjects. His writing is taut, precise and evocative.

What did you like best about this story?

Each chapter is dedicated to a different author/topic. Some reviewers didn't like this, but I loved it. It allowed for journeys into particular words and stories associated with the underlying topic that I found fascinating.

What does Roy McMillan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He reads beautifully; with him the stories come alive. You are climbing the mountain with him, swimming in icy water alongside him, clambering into caves as he explores. It's a full on sensory experience.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes. It made me furious to learn nature related words were being removed from children's dictionaries as they were "no longer deemed relevant". It also created a burning desire to get out there and experience some of the places or things discussed.

Any additional comments?

I couldn't tear myself away from this recording. The only downside..I became so caught up in the books and authors described in each chapter that I've had to buy many of them AND a hard copy of Landmarks so that I have easy access to the glossaries!

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Loved it.

Living on the isle of Lewis and hearing our mother tongue makes me feel so proud of our country

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Enjoy listening... then buy the book

I have listened to over 100 audiobooks in the last three years. Only once did I buy a book after listening to it. That book was Robert Macfarlane's "Old Ways" and the reason I bought the book was because Macfarlane's text is a reference to several worlds of interest and erudition. I knew I would go back to it and explore other avenues that it presented.

I will also buy "Landmarks" when it appears in paperback, for the same reasons. Even though many chapters are glossaries -- and not as well suited to listening as to reading -- the remaining chapters are chiefly an exposition of the writing of other "Nature" writers such as Nan Shepherd, J A Baker, Macfarlane's friend Roger Deakin, the American John Muir and others.

The result is an impassioned and expert dissertation on the rich language used in the past to define Nature, focussing on English, its dialects, and the Celtic languages of Britain.

The historical vignettes presented, such as the interaction between John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt resulting in the creation of Yosemite National Park, were fascinating and the final chapter, Childish, was a brilliant expansion of the theme.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Smoose?

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would, and I have. I chose it for our audible club after seeing Robert Macfarlane on "Springwatch".
I just think that so much goes on in the world, at such a hectic pace, it is worth taking some time out to slow things down.
I learnt so many interesting things, some of which I had no intention of learning but have ended up feeling richer for the experience.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Landmarks?

I loved the readings from the dictionary definitions, with the appropriate backing sound effects. one moment you were in a cave, the next sitting beside a stream or walking in scree.

Have you listened to any of Roy McMillan’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I haven't, so unfortunately I have no comparison here. I wil say, however, that he has a very soothing voice which suits this book perfectly.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

"You've got mail!....ignore it, and do something else"

Any additional comments?

I read, many moons ago, a book called "The Song of the Rolling Earth", having visited the areas in Scotland in which the book is set.
This was, though set against a broader canvas, a similar book in many ways.
If you seek a little solice and refuge from emails, texts and general pestering, immerse yourself in this this.......and find out what a smoose is!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

A taster for many other wonderful authors!

Would you consider the audio edition of Landmarks to be better than the print version?

Roy McMillan's voice is certainly a reason to choose the audio version.

What other book might you compare Landmarks to, and why?

The Old Ways also by Robert Macfarlane and read by Roy McMillan.

What about Roy McMillan’s performance did you like?

Brilliant!

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh and cry out loud!

Any additional comments?

Because of this book I have now read other books that were superb. J A Bakers The Peregrine will now be one of my favourite books ever... it would be a brilliant audio book but I'd have to think hard about who could be the voice.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Beautiful

A magical evocation of landscape and language, history and heritage. Eloquent, lyrical and poetic. Endlessly fascinating and charming. Buy it!

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Routed in the land...flies in the mind.

The idea of this book is very attractive, to collect and collate the various terms that define our understanding of the old/current world around us through the peculiarities of language passed down in near history.

I was very happy with this and very interested - although not entirely satisfied in the way in which the promise was delivered through. The ‘falling short’ for me was that the individual characters who were used to deliver the message - a Lancastrian musician being one example - seemed to lack depth of characterisation and, where offered, their link with the land seemed at times tenuous. This, of course, from me as anything but a son of the land - albeit, a Welsh and Irish heritage does give one a sense of entitlement when it comes to the wide-open spaces in the world of nature-spirituality.

What was enlightening, was the worrying news that so many common-place words now have no place (and are they so common?) with the youngest literate generation that we currently have in our care. If nothing else, the stir that this caused me was justification enough to read this work - but, to be fair there were lots of small pleasures along the route (Tyneside to South Shields, south along the river on a daily commute as it happens).

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A wonderful book

I have listened to this book on many occasions and love it. It celebrates writers who are in touch with specific aspects of the landscape or its wildlife - Cairngorm mountains, open water, peregrine Falcons etc. The writing is lyrical and it is beautifully read by Roy McMillan whose command of Gaelic names and words is stunning. My only reservation as an audio book is the many pages of glossary. It works for me as I listen in bed and regard this as a kind of soporific chant, although sometimes I get frustrated that by the time I hear a definition and realise I'm interested I have forgotten the word! I guess the answer is to buy it for kindle as well.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Fascinating

Would you listen to Landmarks again? Why?

Absolutely. This is such a fascinating and detailed text, with a wonderful form of construction. Fabulous work from Macfarlane.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I am absolutely amazed by this book. It demonstrates such a fantastic body of research, and so wonderfully written together, it was an absolute joy to experience.

Any additional comments?

Anyone interested in space and place, in people, in language, in literature, could hardly fail to enjoy this book!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

This book is a poem

Where does Landmarks rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I love Robert MacFarlane's books. His ideas about landscape and our relationship to it are endlessly stimulating. For me, because this is not a narrative as such, I sometimes had to rewind to pick up the thread of the thoughts.

Any additional comments?

The glossary of words for landscape features, beautifully read, is poetry and made me want to buy the physical book so I could browse at my own pace but the physical book is printed on such nasty paper I didn't.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful