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Uncommon Ground: A word-lover's guide to the British landscape
An enchanting visual glossary of the British landscape: photographs and stories which take the reader from the waterlogged fens to the white sands of the Western Isles.
'Out . . . over the hill and then down the dip and through some lumpy bits.' This was how Dominick Tyler used to describe the places he roamed during his childhood in rural Cornwall. Vague generalities were good enough then, but later he felt a more precise, more detailed language must exist, precisely because he needed it to do what people must have needed it to do for millennia: give directions, tell a story or find a place.
And so he began collecting words for landscape features, words like jackstraw, zawn, clitter and cowbelly, shivver and swag, tolmen and tor. Words that are as varied, rich and poetic as the landscapes they describe. Many of these words for our landscape are falling into obscurity, some endure only by haunting place-names and old maps. Here Dominick Tyler gathers them into an enchanting visual glossary of the British landscape.
On facing pages are photographs and stories touching on geology, literature, topography, folklore and a time when our ancestors read the lines on the land as fluently as text. Taking us from the waterlogged fens to the whitesands of the Western Isles, this full-colour book is a rare delight.
'Out . . . over the hill and then down the dip and through some lumpy bits.' This was how Dominick Tyler used to describe the places he roamed during his childhood in rural Cornwall. Vague generalities were good enough then, but later he felt a more precise, more detailed language must exist, precisely because he needed it to do what people must have needed it to do for millennia: give directions, tell a story or find a place.
And so he began collecting words for landscape features, words like jackstraw, zawn, clitter and cowbelly, shivver and swag, tolmen and tor. Words that are as varied, rich and poetic as the landscapes they describe. Many of these words for our landscape are falling into obscurity, some endure only by haunting place-names and old maps. Here Dominick Tyler gathers them into an enchanting visual glossary of the British landscape.
On facing pages are photographs and stories touching on geology, literature, topography, folklore and a time when our ancestors read the lines on the land as fluently as text. Taking us from the waterlogged fens to the whitesands of the Western Isles, this full-colour book is a rare delight.
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 19, 2015
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147 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 20, 2016
This is like a photographic companion to Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks. Journeying around Britain, Tyler illustrates different geographical features, many of them known by archaic or folksy names. Some are just record shots, while others are true works of art. I especially liked the more whimsical terms: “Monkey’s birthday” for simultaneous rain and sunshine, and “Witches’ knickers” for plastic scraps waving from a tree or fence. I won a copy in a Guardian giveaway.
May 7, 2015
Land and language have always been closely intertwined. A lot of writers and poets have sought wilderness and isolation for inspiration, drawing on the natural beauty to form their thoughts and feelings into simple words of immense beauty. But it does work the other way too, as people looked to describe their surrounding to others they created unique and specific words that apply to landscape and nature, weather and place.
In a similar vien to Landmarks, Tyler has travelled the British countryside seeking these incredibly local words for very specific items. There are delights as shivver, zawn, spume and haaris. And with all of these words is a short description, and a beautiful photos taken by the author. In fact, for me, it is the photos that lift this from a good book to another level. They show the feature described, and in a lot of cases they are excellent compositions. For some there is a grid reference so you could find it too.
Well worth reading for anyone who loves the natural world, it is a beautiful book.
In a similar vien to Landmarks, Tyler has travelled the British countryside seeking these incredibly local words for very specific items. There are delights as shivver, zawn, spume and haaris. And with all of these words is a short description, and a beautiful photos taken by the author. In fact, for me, it is the photos that lift this from a good book to another level. They show the feature described, and in a lot of cases they are excellent compositions. For some there is a grid reference so you could find it too.
Well worth reading for anyone who loves the natural world, it is a beautiful book.
September 26, 2016
Absolutely gorgeous. A perfect blend of recovered knowledge and personal experience.
May 17, 2016
My son, who shares my love of words and of the British landscape, bought me this book for Christmas. In this age of constant showering, on social media, of photographic images, this book stands out as a series of beautiful photographs made by a pro, who has taken great pains to search out things to illustrate his views of our island. It's been a great pleasure to read, and has encouraged me to get out there with my new chestnut hiking stave (another gift from my son) and do some serious walking! Highly recommended, and very well done Dominick Tyler!
April 17, 2015
I think I was always going to love this book. My two main hobbies are photography and reading. This is a book about pictures and words. Can't fail. But it is a really enjoyable read: it feels like you are sat next to your mate in your favourite pub while he talks you (enthusiastically and knowledgeably) through his photos over a pint (or two) of your favourite beer. The writing is a joy to read and the pictures are great. Thoroughly recommended for anyone with some kind of interest in nature and the British landscape.
July 12, 2020
Great for photography- and word-lovers alike, educational whilst being entertaining, and will reward both "dipping-in" as well as a straight read-through. As much about the author's own journey in learning to read the British landscape, as a record of the words and features he found. Somehow also manages to be relaxing/thoughtful even while it's feeding your curiosity - and hop fully also your wanderlust.
March 12, 2021
Dreamy, playful, very British, and filled with nature.
This book is so much more than a coffee table book with pretty nature pictures to look at. It contains small anecdotes, excursions into the author's childhood and view of the British landscape, as well as into the language and culture of not only Britain.
I enjoyed learning new terms for landscapes I can find in my own home as well as getting to know rock formations, water phenomena, and other natural constructions that are completely foreign to me. Or were. With Tyler's descriptions and after staring longingly into the depth of a green forest or up to a carved mountain peak, these landscapes became more and more familiar.
If this does not wake a feeling of wanderlust in you, making you want to pack a backpack and travel the diverse British countryside, I don't know what will.
This book is so much more than a coffee table book with pretty nature pictures to look at. It contains small anecdotes, excursions into the author's childhood and view of the British landscape, as well as into the language and culture of not only Britain.
I enjoyed learning new terms for landscapes I can find in my own home as well as getting to know rock formations, water phenomena, and other natural constructions that are completely foreign to me. Or were. With Tyler's descriptions and after staring longingly into the depth of a green forest or up to a carved mountain peak, these landscapes became more and more familiar.
If this does not wake a feeling of wanderlust in you, making you want to pack a backpack and travel the diverse British countryside, I don't know what will.
August 12, 2015
As the subtitle suggests, this is a book for word-lovers, and anyone fascinated by the extraordinary range of English vocabulary will find it quite enchanting. So will lovers of good photography.
Dominick Tyler has explored the words used of natural features in Britain and has found superb examples to illustrate them. If you are depressed by the overwhelming traffic that seems to cover the landscape of Britain (outside the highlands of Scotland and Wales), not only in the cities but on country roads as well, you will find relief in seeing in these photographs just how beautiful surviving landscape features can be.
Linguists sometimes tell us that the Inuit language has more words for snow and ice than any other, but English can also offer a variety, borrowing (as English does) from other languages ancient and modern: névé, haareis, needle ice, rime, hoar, sunwheel, snow-roller, sastrugi, verglas are all in this book and we could add more. Or take these words for wetlands from the Fens: crike, carr, mire, bog, marfer, stagna, cowbelly, pingo, ognip, meol (and its five variant spellings), scalp, eagre. Even without definitions, they set the imagination flowing.
Of course Tyler provides definitions and much more than that: lively, amusing texts that explore landscape and language scientifically, artistically and wittily. If the following appeals, so will the book: "In Cumbria, a doake is the shallow platter-shaped indentation that remains when a flounder, or similar, has left its lurking place to pursue food or escape capture. ... The term 'ass groove' for the indentation left by habitual occupation of one spot on the sofa was coined by Homer Simpson. 'Doake' seems to me to be an ideal alternative term, perhaps for use in the presence of genteel relatives."
Oh, the joy of English words!
Dominick Tyler has explored the words used of natural features in Britain and has found superb examples to illustrate them. If you are depressed by the overwhelming traffic that seems to cover the landscape of Britain (outside the highlands of Scotland and Wales), not only in the cities but on country roads as well, you will find relief in seeing in these photographs just how beautiful surviving landscape features can be.
Linguists sometimes tell us that the Inuit language has more words for snow and ice than any other, but English can also offer a variety, borrowing (as English does) from other languages ancient and modern: névé, haareis, needle ice, rime, hoar, sunwheel, snow-roller, sastrugi, verglas are all in this book and we could add more. Or take these words for wetlands from the Fens: crike, carr, mire, bog, marfer, stagna, cowbelly, pingo, ognip, meol (and its five variant spellings), scalp, eagre. Even without definitions, they set the imagination flowing.
Of course Tyler provides definitions and much more than that: lively, amusing texts that explore landscape and language scientifically, artistically and wittily. If the following appeals, so will the book: "In Cumbria, a doake is the shallow platter-shaped indentation that remains when a flounder, or similar, has left its lurking place to pursue food or escape capture. ... The term 'ass groove' for the indentation left by habitual occupation of one spot on the sofa was coined by Homer Simpson. 'Doake' seems to me to be an ideal alternative term, perhaps for use in the presence of genteel relatives."
Oh, the joy of English words!
January 11, 2016
A beautiful rarity. It must, by its very existence, bear comparison to Macfarlane's Landmarks, another recent and exceptional tome on the language of landscape and the narrative it conveys. Whilst Tyler's may be said to fall short in the depth and breadth of its exploration of the topic - and, by comparison to the 335 pages of heavily referenced text by the Cambridge Fellow, this is no surprise or particular criticism - but the beauty of the illustrative photographs that begin each chapter and accompany each term is striking.
October 29, 2015
Nature photography, but in a way that breaks down and makes sense of it rather than merely romanticizing it - it's intended to increase literacy with (the British) non-urban landscape. And it's a fun read, a few paragraphs with a great picture, with a word or two naming the image - the word often being something recovered from being lost in time or a very uncommon word. Anyways, more productive than randomly searching Google for interesting geological formations
June 29, 2016
Super Xmas pressie from one of my dearest friends. Fascinating and beautiful photos. Finished this just in time for a trip back to the motherland. Has whet my appetite for the Yorkshire Dales and more besides.
September 6, 2015
A beautiful book which is now living on my coffee table. My perfect book!
January 17, 2017
A wonderful book about words and the British landscape with each word illustrated by a photograph.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews