Robert Macfarlane (born 15 August 1976) is a British writer and Fellow of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

. He is best known for his books on landscape, nature, place, people and language, which include ''The Old Ways'' (2012), ''Landmarks'' (2015), ''The Lost Words'' (2017) and '' Underland'' (2019). In 2017 he received The E. M. Forster Award for Literature from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

. He is married to professor of modern Chinese history and literature

Julia Lovell Julia Lovell (born 1975) is a British scholar, author, and translator whose non-fiction books focus on China. Lovell is professor of Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Her works on the Opium Wars (''The Opi ...

. In 2022 and 2024, Macfarlane was named as an outside contender for the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

. The Prize in those years was won by Annie Ernaux and Han Kang respectively.

Early life and education

Macfarlane was born in Halam in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, and attended

Nottingham High School Nottingham High School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private fee-charging day school for boys and girls in Nottingham, England, with an infant and junior school (ages 4–11) and senior school (ages 11–18). There were 1177 stu ...

. He was educated at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

. He began a PhD at

, in 2000, and in 2001 was elected a Fellow of the college.

Family

His father John Macfarlane is a respiratory physician who co-authored the CURB-65 score of pneumonia in 2003. His brother James is also a consultant physician in respiratory medicine. He is married to

, and has three children. His grandfather was the British Diplomat and mountaineer Edward Peck.

Books

Macfarlane's first book, '' Mountains of the Mind'', was published in 2003 and won the

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspa ...

, the

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to ...

, and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. It was shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and the

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kin ...

. It is an account of the development of Western attitudes to mountains and precipitous landscapes, and takes its title from a line by the poet

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame places him among the leading English poets. His Prosody (linguistics), prosody – notably his concept of sprung ...

. The book asks why people, including Macfarlane, are drawn to mountains despite their obvious dangers, and examines the powerful and sometimes fatal hold that mountains can come to have over the imagination. ''The Irish Times'' described the book as "a new kind of exploration writing, perhaps even the birth of a new genre, which demands a new category of its own." ''Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality in Nineteenth-Century Literature'' was published in March 2007. In the book, Macfarlane examines

originality Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion ...

and

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

between 1859 and 1900, and explores the changing understanding of originality and

self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

seen in Romantic and

Victorian literature Victorian era, Victorian literature is English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). In the Victorian era, the novel became the leading literary genre in English. English writing from this era reflects the major transform ...

. He presents two theories of literary originality: ''creatio'',A related term exists in

religious cosmology Religious cosmology is an explanation of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe from a religious perspective. This may include beliefs on origin in the form of a creation myth, subsequent evolution, current organizational form a ...

. meaning creation 'from nothing', and ''inventio'',A related term exists in

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

. meaning creation based on "inventive reuse". Macfarlane argues that a key element of English literature during the nineteenth century was a gradual rejection of ''creatio'' in favour of prioritising ''inventio''. The book includes discussion of the works of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, Art critic, art and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of t ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

Charles Reade Charles Reade (8 June 1814 – 11 April 1884) was a British novelist and dramatist, best known for the 1861 historical novel '' The Cloister and the Hearth''. Life Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire, to John Reade and Anne Marie Sco ...

Lionel Johnson Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 – 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist, and critic (although he claimed Irish descent and wrote on Celtic themes). Life Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, England in 1867 and educated at Win ...

and

George Henry Lewes George Henry Lewes (; 18 April 1817 – 30 November 1878) was an English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre. He was also an amateur Physiology, physiologist. American feminist Margaret Fuller called Lewes a "witty, French, flippan ...

. ''Original Copy'' was positively received by both academic and journalistic reviewers. In a 2008 review, Meg Jensen described the book as arguing in favour of an "open and collaborative response of authors to works of the past." Jensen noted that this view diverged from that of Macfarlane's fellow Pembroke College alumnus

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

, whose 1973 book '' The Anxiety of Influence'' interpreted "literary inheritance as a burden that must be concealed and negotiated". '' The Wild Places'' was published in September 2007, and describes a series of journeys made in search of the wildness that remains in Britain and Ireland. The book won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award, and the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Festival, North America's equivalent of the Boardman Tasker Prize. It became a best-seller in Britain and

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and was shortlisted for six further prizes, including the Dolman Best Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the

, and North America's Orion Book Award, a prize founded "to recognize books that deepen our connection to the natural world, present new ideas about our relationship with nature, and achieve excellence in writing." ''The Wild Places'' was adapted for television by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as an episode of the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

'' Natural World'' series broadcast in February 2010; the film later won a Wildscreen Award. ''The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot'', the third in the "loose trilogy of books about landscape and the human heart" begun by ''Mountains of the Mind'' and ''The Wild Places'', was published in June 2012. The book describes the years Macfarlane spent following "old ways" (pilgrimage paths, sea-roads, prehistoric trackways, ancient rights of way) in south-east England, north-west Scotland, Spain, Sichuan and Palestine. Its guiding spirit is the early-twentieth-century writer and poet, Edward Thomas, and its chief subject is the reciprocal shaping of people and place. ''The Old Ways'' was in the bestseller lists for six months. It was acclaimed as a "tour de force" by

William Dalrymple William Benedict Hamilton-Dalrymple (born 20 March 1965) is a Delhi-based Scottish people, Scottish historian and art historian, as well as a curator, broadcaster and critic. He spends nine months of each year on his goat farm in India. He i ...

in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

''. It was chosen as ''Book of the Year'' by

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy ''His Dark Materials''. The first volume, ''Northern Lights'' (1995), won the Carnegie Medal

, Jan Morris, John Gray,

Antony Beevor Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and Civil War. ...

, and

Dan Stevens Daniel Jonathan Stevens (born 10 October 1982) is an English actor. He first drew international attention for his role as Matthew Crawley in the ITV period drama series ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2012). He also starred as David in the thriller ...

among others. In the UK, it was joint winner of the Dolman Prize for Travel Writing, was shortlisted for the

Samuel Johnson Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its m ...

(the "non-fiction Booker"), the Jan Michalski Prize for World Literature, the Duff Cooper Prize for Non-Fiction, the Warwick Prize for Writing, the Waterstones Book of the Year, and three other prizes. In the US, it was shortlisted for the Orion Book Award. ''Landmarks'', a book that celebrates and defends the language of landscape, was published in the UK in March 2015. A version of its first chapter, published in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as ''The Word-Hoard'', went viral, and the book became a Sunday Times number one bestseller. It was shortlisted for The Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. ''Landmarks'' is described on the cover as "a field guide to the literature of nature, and a vast glossary collecting thousands of the remarkable terms used in dozens of the languages and dialects of Britain and Ireland to describe and denote aspects of terrain, weather, and nature". Each of the book's chapters explores the landscapes and style of a writer or writers, as Macfarlane travels to meet farmers, sailors, walkers, glossarians, artists, poets and others who have developed intense and committing relationships with their chosen places. The chapter of the book concerning Nan Shepherd and the Cairngorm mountains was adapted for television by BBC4 and BBC Scotland. Macfarlane's detailed writing style, and his frequent references to dialect vocabulary, were satirised in a February 2016 edition of ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised ...

'' by Craig Brown in the magazine's regular "Diary" feature. ''Landmarks'' was published in the US in August 2016. It was described by Tom Shippey in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' as a book that "teaches us to love our world, even the parts of it that we have neglected. Mr Macfarlane is the great nature writer, and nature poet, of this generation." In May 2016 Macfarlane published ''The Gifts of Reading'', a short book about gifts, stories and the unexpected consequences of generosity. All work for the book was given for free, and all moneys raised were donated to MOAS, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, to save refugee lives. With the artist Jackie Morris, Macfarlane published ''The Lost Words: A Spell Book'' in October 2017. The book became what the Guardian called 'a cultural phenomenon', winning Children's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards jointly with ''The Hate U Give'' by Angie Thomas. The "lost" words of the book's title are twenty of the names for everyday nature—from "Acorn" through to "Wren" by way of "Bluebell", "Kingfisher", "Lark" and "Otter"—that were controversially dropped from inclusion in the Oxford Junior Dictionary due to under-use by children. Grassroots campaigns sprang up to raise money to place copies of the book in every primary and special school in all of Scotland, half of England and a quarter of Wales. Funds were also raised to place a copy in every

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

in Britain. The book is used by charities and carers working with

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

sufferers, refugees, survivors of domestic abuse, childhood

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

patients, and people in terminal care. It has been adapted for dance, outdoor theatre, choral music and classical music. In 2018 the new Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at

Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in Greater London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the List of highest points in London, highest point ...

opened its new building with four levels decorated with art and poems from ''The Lost Words''. It was the inspiration for '' Spell Songs'', a folk music concert and album by musicians including Karine Polwart,

Julie Fowlis Julie Fowlis (born 20 June 1979) is a Scottish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist who sings primarily in Scottish Gaelic. Early life Fowlis was born and grew up on North Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides, in a Gàidhealtachd, Gaelic-s ...

and Kris Drever. '' Underland: A Deep Time Journey'' was published in May 2019. It is a book about the deep-time pasts and futures of the Earth, as revealed by mythical underworlds and real subterranean journeys. The book was serialized on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

as the ''Book of the Week'' for 29 April - 3 May 2019.

Film

In collaboration with the director Jen Peedom, the cinematographer Renan Ozturk and the composer

Richard Tognetti Richard Leo Tognetti AO (born 4 August 1965) is a leading Australian musician recognised internationally as a violin soloist, ensemble player, leader, composer and arranger, conductor and artistic director. He is currently artistic direct ...

, Macfarlane worked on the film ''

Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

'', which premiered with a live performance from the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

in June 2017. Macfarlane's script was voiced by

Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...

. ''Mountain'' became the highest-grossing Australian documentary of all time, and won three Australian Academy Awards. He has also written with same director and writer Jennifer Peedom and co-director and writer Jospeh Nizeti for the movie River (2022). The film includes Willem Dafoe as a narrator. With the Oscar-nominated composer

Hauschka Volker Bertelmann (born 11 October 1966) is a German composer, pianist and former rapper who mainly performs and records under the name Hauschka. He is best known for his compositions for prepared piano. He won an Academy Award and a British Ac ...

and the director Rob Petit, Macfarlane made ''Upstream'', a film set in the Cairngorm mountains in winter. Macfarlane's 2012 book ''Holloway'' was adapted into a short film shot on Super-8 by the film-maker Adam Scovell.

Music

As a lyricist, librettist and spoken-word performer, Macfarlane has collaborated with numerous musicians. With his close friend the musician-singer-actor Johnny Flynn, he wrote two albums: ''Lost In The Cedar Wood'' (2021) and ''The Moon Also Rises'' (2023). He and Flynn adapted ''Lost In The Cedar Wood'' into a two-person "story-song" show, which opened at the

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a Theater (structure), theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was ...

in London in January 2022, before a sell-out tour later that year. In May 2024, the pair toured a full-length sell-out show called "The River Calls", supported by the "River Band". In November 2022 he began working with musician Hayden Thorpe, former frontman of band Wild Beasts, on an adaptation of Macfarlane's book ''Ness'' into a full-length album. Thorpe released Ness with Domino Records in September 2024, and toured the album in the UK and Europe, with Macfarlane sometimes appearing as co-performer. The first live performances of the album were held on the former nuclear-weapons testing site of Orford Ness, which inspired both book and album. A defused WE.177 nuclear weapon was placed centrally in the audience. In June 2012, Macfarlane wrote the libretto to a "jazz opera" called ''Untrue Island'', composed by the double-bassist Arnie Somogyi, and performed in a former nuclear weapons storage hangar on Orford Ness. In January 2025 The Times reported that Macfarlane had recently completed work on the libretto for a full-length choral work called The World Tree, in part a "requiem for the elledSycamore Gap tree", to be premiered in Helsinki by the Helsinki Chamber Choir in November 2025.

Background

Macfarlane is a nature writer in the broadest sense, part of a tradition of writing about landscape, place, travel, and nature that includes

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...

Richard Jefferies John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 – 14 August 1887) was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influ ...

and Edward Thomas, as well as contemporary figures such as

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American author. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourt ...

, Rebecca Solnit,

Annie Dillard Annie Dillard (née Doak; born April 30, 1945) is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and nonfiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memo ...

Barry Lopez Barry Holstun Lopez (January 6, 1945 – December 25, 2020) was an American author, essayist, nature writer, and fiction writer whose work is known for its humanitarian and environmental concerns. In a career spanning over 50 years, he ...

and his friend Roger Deakin. He is associated with other walker-writers including

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greate ...

, Nan Shepherd and Laurie Lee, and seen as one of a number of recent British writers who have provoked a new critical and popular interest in writing about landscape. His interests in topography, ecology and the environment have been explored in his books but also through essays, notably his ''Common Ground'' series which was published in ''

'' in 2005. He has also published many reportage and travel essays in magazines, especially ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...

'' and ''Archipelago'', as well as numerous introductory essays to reissues of lost and neglected classics of landscape and

nature writing Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose about the natural environment. It often draws heavily from scientific information and facts while also incorporating philosophical reflection upon various aspects of nature. Works are frequently writte ...

from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, notably J. A. Baker (''The Peregrine'') and Nan Shepherd (''The Living Mountain'' and ''In The Cairngorms'').

Campaigns

In 2018 Macfarlane co-edited, with Chris Packham and Patrick Barkham, ''A People's Manifesto For Wildlife'', arguing for urgent and large-scale change in Britain's relationship with nature. 10,000 people marched on Whitehall to deliver the manifesto to DEFRA. He has been involved with the Sheffield tree-protectors campaign, fighting the unnecessary felling of thousands of street trees in the city. Macfarlane wrote 'Heartwood', a poem for the protestors, which was set to music, flyposted and subvertised across Sheffield, and hung as a 'charm' around endangered trees. He is a patron of the Outdoor Swimming Society, the Outlandia Project, ONCA (One Network for Conservation and the Arts), and Gateway To Nature, a Lottery-funded mental-health initiative designed to improve access to nature for vulnerable groups and individuals. He is a founding Trustee of the charity Action For Conservation, which works to inspire a lifelong engagement with conservation in 12–17 year olds, working especially with schools with high pupil premium levels.

Collaborations

Most of Macfarlane's books have been jacketed with original work by the artist

Stanley Donwood Dan Rickwood (born 29 October 1968), known professionally as Stanley Donwood, is an English artist and writer. Since 1994, he has created all the artwork for the rock band Radiohead with their singer, Thom Yorke, plus many of Yorke's other proj ...

, known for his close association with the band

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

, exceptions include his book The Lost Words, for example, which was illustrated by Jackie Morris. Macfarlane also collaborated with Donwood and writer Dan Richards on ''Holloway'', published in an edition of 277 by Quive-Smith Press in 2012, and a trade edition by Faber & Faber in May 2013, which became a Sunday Times best-seller. Macfarlane and Donwood collaborated on an edition of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

's poems published by The Folio Society in 2021. Macfarlane selected and introduced 109 poems for the edition with Donwood providing the illustrations. His work has been involved with the music of contemporary musicians including Johnny Flynn,

Frank Turner Francis Edward Turner (born 28 December 1981) is an English Punk rock, punk and Folk music, folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primaril ...

, The Memory Band, Grasscut, Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. He co-wrote the song ''Coins for Eyes'' with Flynn for the 9th series of the BBC programme Digging for Britain. He has designed with Danish-Icelandic artist

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson (; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience. In 1995, ...

a steel pool installation planned to be on the beach of Silecroft in Cumbria as part of a new art program for Lake District Coast. The oval basin which will fill up twice a day with sea water during high tide will reflect the sky and be viewed from an observatory platform during low tide when the sea levels lower exposing the basin. The form of the basin is inspired by

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

cup and ring engravings found on boulders in the district and elsewhere in Europe.

Awards and honours

* 2003:

, winner, ''Mountains of the Mind'' * 2004:

, winner, ''Mountains of the Mind'' * 2004: Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, winner, ''Mountains of the Mind'' * 2007: Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, winner, ''The Wild Places'' * 2008: Grand Prize Banff Mountain Festival, winner, ''The Wild Places'' * 2008: Scottish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award, winner, ''The Wild Places'' * 2011:

Philip Leverhulme Prize The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize sche ...

in Modern European Languages and Literature * 2012:

, shortlist, ''The Old Ways'' * 2013: Dolman Best Travel Book Award, winner, ''The Old Ways'' * 2013:

Jan Michalski Prize for Literature Jan Michalski Prize for Literature (French: Prix Jan Michalski) is a Swiss literary prize for any work of fiction or non-fiction published anywhere in the world in any language. It is meant to recognize authors from around the world and world liter ...

, finalist, ''The Old Ways'' * 2013: Warwick Prize for Writing, shortlist, ''The Old Ways'' * 2015:

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival (), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was d ...

Medal for Prose, ''Landmarks'' * 2015:

, shortlist, ''Landmarks'' * 2017: British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, ''The Lost Words'' * 2017: E. M. Forster Award for Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters * 2019: Wainwright Prize, '' Underland'' * 2019: NDR Kultur Sachbuchpreis, '' Underland'' * 2023: $75,00
Writers' Trust Weston International Award
for career achievement in non-fiction * 2024
Blue Metropolis Planet Earth Literature Prize
for a body of work

Bibliography

Books

* * * * * * * * * * * * ''Is a River Alive?'' (2025)

Notes

References

External links

Robert Macfarlane
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macfarlane, Robert Living people 1976 births 20th-century English male writers Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Boardman Tasker Prize winners British nature writers British travel writers English male non-fiction writers English non-fiction outdoors writers English people of Scottish descent Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People educated at Nottingham High School People from Newark and Sherwood (district) Philip Leverhulme Prize winners