Il y a très longtemps, certains mots commencèrent à disparaître du langage des enfants. Si discrètement qu'au début personne ne s'en aperçut. Et puis un jour, ils n'étaient plus là, le dictionnaire n'en avait gardé aucune trace. Pour retrouver ce qui manque, il existe des formules magiques : les mots perdus peuvent revenir.

Les mots perdus

Reissue of J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing, with an exclusive new afterword by Robert Macfarlane.

 J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing was first published in 1967. Greeted with acclaim, it went on to win the Duff Cooper Prize, the pre-eminent literary prize of the time. Luminaries such as Ted Hughes, Barry Lopez and Andrew Motion have cited it as one of the most important books in twentieth-century nature writing.

 Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J. A. Baker spent long winters looking and writing about the visitors from the uplands - peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons and waders that share the desolate landscape with them.

 This new edition of the timeless classic, published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first publication, features an afterword by one of the book's greatest admirers, Robert Macfarlane.

The Peregrine: 50th Anniversary Edition - Afterword by Robert Macfarlane

" Il existe entre l'écriture et la marche une alliance presque aussi ancienne que la littérature : pas de randonnée sans histoire, pas de chemin qui ne raconte quelque chose. " Robert Macfarlane a passé des années à parcourir les routes et à interroger les liens entre les hommes et le paysage. Tout commence un jour de printemps, quand il quitte sa maison de Cambridge pour suivre un ancien chemin de craie. Une aventure de trois ans le mène sur des voies antiques, des routes maritimes, des chemins de pèlerinage, des routes fracturées par la guerre et des sentiers escarpés de haute montagne. Il suit la trace de marcheurs avant lui : poètes, soldats, chasseurs d'oiseaux, philosophes ou bergers. Il parcourt des routes périlleuses, sacrées ou intimistes. Chemin faisant, ce conteur merveilleux observe les paysages et explore leur histoire insoupçonnée pour la faire ressurgir sous ses pas. D'une érudition scientifique et littéraire éblouissante, Par les chemins est une ode jubilatoire à la puissance de la marche, des routes, et de ceux qui les ont empruntées. Ce récit qui a déjà séduit plusieurs centaines de milliers de lecteurs est célébré depuis sa parution comme un chef-d'oeuvre de la littérature de voyage.

Par les chemins - Une histoire des routes et de ceux qui les ont empruntées - Occasion

The Collins Nature Library is a new series of classic British nature writing - reissues of long-lost seminal works. The titles have been chosen by one of Britain's best known and highly acclaimed nature writers, Robert Macfarlane, who has also written new introductions that put these classics into a modern context.

 Nature Near London is a collection of observational pieces from locations near London at the end of the 19th Century. The depth of knowledge and of familiarity with particular places and particular species gives the impression that each small piece is the product of many years of observation.

 His style of observation is a work in miniature - cataloguing the most minute details; the dancing of a flower in the wind or the darting of a cautious trout. The chapters centre on a special place, a certain species, geographical feature or habitat - everything from orchards and copses to rivers and streams.

 Jefferies always explains the typical behaviour of whatever he is describing, and often contrasts what he sees with what one would expect to see in another part of the country, or in a different season. His knowledge of flowers is wide-ranging, and his ability to describe one particular patch of a field in such a specific way brings tremendous variety to the chapters that make up the book.

 The final chapters are a departure - both from the character of the rest of the book, and from London itself, as Jefferies boards the train to Brighton. Suddenly he is describing people and their relationship to nature, as much as nature itself. The scope widens, less a work in miniature, more surging towards a triumphant end as Jefferies becomes ever more philosophical.

 100 years on, the book becomes even more relevant than when it was published - as a reminder of the dangers of unrelenting urbanisation, but also the context of the trend that aims to recreate nature where we need it most - around our cities. Nature near London is a portrait of what we've lost, and a reminder of nature's positive and calming influence. Going along with Jefferies is like taking an afternoon stroll out of the city, without having to leave your armchair.

Nature Near London

On accède au monde souterrain par le tronc fendu d'un vieux frêne...
« Underland », c'est le monde d'en bas, les lieux où hommes et femmes enfouissent leurs secrets honteux ou merveilleux.
Pendant plus de sept ans, l'écrivain Robert Macfarlane a visité des sites souterrains : un laboratoire caché dans une mine de sel sous la mer, des grottes norvégiennes abritant des peintures rupestres mystérieuses, les profondeurs de glaciers d'où surgissent des icebergs monstrueux.
Tout ce que nous entreposons, cachons, jetons, laissera une empreinte dans la terre. Quel sera notre legs géologique aux générations futures ?
En explorant notre rapport au sous-sol, Robert Macfarlane nous transmet un savoir riche, poétique et précieux.
Mêlant littérature, science et récit de voyage, Underland est une odyssée puissante qui résonne longtemps après qu'on en a achevé la lecture.

Underland ; voyage au centre de la Terre

Une histoire des routes et de ceux qui les ont empruntées.
" Il existe entre l'écriture et la marche une alliance presque aussi ancienne que la littérature : pas de randonnée sans histoire, pas de chemin qui ne raconte quelque chose. "
Robert Macfarlane a passé des années à parcourir les routes et à interroger les liens entre les hommes et le paysage. Tout commence un jour de printemps, quand il quitte sa maison de Cambridge pour suivre un ancien chemin de craie. Une aventure de trois ans le mène sur des voies antiques, des routes maritimes, des chemins de pèlerinage, des routes fracturées par la guerre et des sentiers escarpés de haute montagne.
Il suit la trace de marcheurs avant lui : poètes, soldats, chasseurs d'oiseaux, philosophes ou bergers. Il parcourt des routes périlleuses, sacrées ou intimistes. Chemin faisant, ce conteur merveilleux observe les paysages et explore leur histoire insoupçonnée pour la faire ressurgir sous ses pas.
D'une érudition scientifique et littéraire éblouissante, Par les chemins est une ode jubilatoire à la puissance de la marche, des routes, et de ceux qui les ont empruntées. Ce récit qui a déjà séduit plusieurs centaines de milliers de lecteurs est célébré depuis sa parution comme un chef-d'oeuvre de la littérature de voyage.
Traduit de l'anglais (Royaume-Uni) par Patrick Hersant

Par les chemins - Une histoire des routes et de ceux qui les ont empruntées

'My favourite book about the wilderness' Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

 In this shimmering masterpiece of American nature writing, Edward Abbey ventures alone into the canyonlands of Moab, Utah, to work as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service.

 Living out of a trailer, Abbey captures in rapt, poetic prose the landscape of the desert; a world of terracotta earth, empty skies, arching rock formations, cliffrose, juniper, pinyon pine and sand sage. His summers become spirit quests, taking him in search of wild horses and Ancient Puebloan petroglyphs, up mountains and across tribal lands, and down the Glen Canyon by river. He experiences both sides of his new home; its incredible beauty and its promise of liberation, but also its isolating, cruel side, at one point discovering a dead tourist at an isolated area of the Grand Canyon.

 In his own irascible style, Abbey uses his time in the desert to meditate on the tension between nature and civilisation, and outlines a personal philosophy that would come to heavily influence the environmentalist movement. Now published in a special edition to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, this classic seems remarkably prescient, and has lost none of its power.

Desert Solitaire - A Season in the Wilderness

The Collins Nature Library is a new series of classic British nature writing - reissues of long-lost seminal works. The titles have been chosen by one of Britain's best known and highly-acclaimed nature writers, Robert Macfarlane, who has also written new introductions that put these classics into a modern context.

 Adventures Among Birds is almost a manifesto for the life of birds. Hudson's experience of different forms of birdlife is prodigious, and he weaves a thousand small anecdotes together into a rallying call against indifference to the beauty of birds.

 From childhood memories of his first caged bird and his growing passion for them, slowly growing throughout his adolescence in Argentina, to the beauty of the diversity of birdlife in England, Hudson's delight at this particular aspect of nature is palpable.

 It is in his protests against the hunting of birds for sport that his love for birds is most clearly shown. Their behaviour towards one another convinces Hudson of their friendship, and his powers of observation paint a picture of interaction and emotion between birds that is almost human.

 Adventures Among Birds is a collection of detailed little pictures of the feathered world and why it matters. Told with an unrelenting passion for its subject, Hudson's book is sure to draw you in with its countless beautiful descriptions in miniature.

Les mots perdus

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