The Book of Birds by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane review: 'not a book, but a treasure'
This collaboration between illustrator Jackie Morris and nature writer Robert Macfarlane is a magnificent achievement, writes Stuart Kelly
This question is not entirely facetious, but for which prizes will Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane’s new book be submitted? It would be obvious for the Wainwright Prize for nature writing, perhaps stand a chance for the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction, but it could as easily contend the Goldsmith’s Prize for innovation or even the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry. Subtitled “A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss” it illustrates, in both senses, 49 birds regarded as “declining” or “endangered”, inviting the reader not to ask “what is that bird?” but “who is that bird?”
The artwork by Morris is as numinous as ever, with the use of gold reminiscent of Sorin Dumitrescu, the Romanian neo-Orthodox artist. The gold creates a field of permanence, against which the birds seem to move and are moving.
Macfarlane’s writing is jaw-dropping. Each entry is around 500 words long and yet he will move between descriptions of plumage, eggs, call, behaviour, mating, diet and other matters ornithological and at the same time throw in etymology, mythology, literary references, personal reminiscence and pertinent scientific detail. As prose-poems they feature internal rhymes, assonances and alliteration, onomatopoeic renderings, both staccato and flowing rhythms.
Take this from “Kingfisher”: “Sun lights the touchpaper and - whooooooshhhh - blue fuse burns air, sears sky, scorches eye, scratches stream’s skin. A glimpse of Kingfisher is vision-quake, double-take; a strafe-straight rake across the lake that leaves neon streaks in its afterburner wake, sets sight ablaze”.
There is an exuberance that is reminiscent of Edwin Morgan, or, going back, the delirious incantation of Kit Smart in the 18 century. Parts feel even older, like William Langland or the Pearl Poet. It is postmodern medievalism or medieval postmodernism. Macfarlane writes: “We call you ‘common’ Tern – but common things are the easiest to lose. Lulled by the name, we cease to look, we cease to care, we do not spot the slow decay, we fail to stop the common becoming rare”.
This is not a book, but a treasure. I hope it does not become an epitaph. Morris and Macfarlane should hold their heads up high at this achievement.
The Book of Birds by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane, Hamish Hamilton, £35
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