An Artistic Guide to Lost Words of Nature

The Lost Words is a gigantic bumper book of lost words of nature, illustrated by Welsh artist Jackie Morris. Words from the natural world are disappearing from children’s lives (Dandelion, Otter, Bramble and Acorn). A wild landscape of imagination and play is rapidly fading from our children’s minds.

The book grew from a letter that Jackie was asked to sign, when it was found that certain words from the Oxford Press Junior Dictionary were to be removed: heron, acorn and even kingfisher? Due to a culture that viewed the urban world as more important than the natural world. ‘A timely reminder that we should take a good long look at what we value’.

Jackie wondered how these words could be removed. What did that teach about the importance of nature? She emailed Robert and the book was born.

Writer Christina Crook wrote her book The Joy of Missing Out(about the experiences of her experiences of an Internet fast), after witnessing a ‘man of the cloth’ blessing Blackberries (the phones, not the fruits).

The poetry and art of this writer and artist appear on bags of Skylark Coffee, a non-profit brand based in Brighton, whose drink sales support many local charities.

The most beautiful and thought-provoking book I’ve read this year. Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris have mad a thing of astonishing beauty. Alex Preston

Gorgeous to look at and to read. Jeanette Winterston

About the Author and Artist

Robert Macfarlane is the author of many books on landscape, nature, people and places, his work has been translated into many languages and widely adapted.

Jackie Morris is an artist who lives in Wales, where she shares a small cottage with her children, two odd dogs and cats of various colours, mostly ginger!