In Her Element: Women and the Landscape – An Anthology

by Jane Macnamee (Editor), Patricia Barrie, Katherine Cuthbert

Twenty original voices explore their personal connections to the landscapes that shaped their lives; with nature serving as a healer and a teacher, this is a book about the unique bond with the natural world that grows over time spent in the company of wild things. In some stories, that bond is felt just for a moment: dolphins following a woman's sailing boat around the coast of Pembrokeshire; the arc of of red kite's tail feathers; a full moon over water; reaching the summit; the feeling of snow; or discovering stalactites underground. Others share their tales of a bond which has deepened over the years: walking a familiar mountain in all its seasons; a lifetime's work researching one of the rarest treasures, the Snowdon lily; rediscovering the land after a diagnosis of MS; memories of life by the sea on Anglesey; a love affair with climbing that started in childhood; and saying goodbye to the headland after 50 years of farming. This book brings a feminine perspective, with both new and established voices, to contemporary nature writing in Britain.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Short Stories, Essays

266 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

Reviews

[VG · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of beautiful, lyrical landscape writing, diverse in individual subject yet woven together with themes of connection and belonging in Wales. It avoids pretentiousness with self-aware contributors who often include an element of self-deprecating humour. I particularly enjoyed the essays ‘Painting Dyffryn Tanat’, which considers a landscape view from a painter’s perspective, combining practical colour choices with a deeper examination of how artists can represent the underlying issues in an environment, not just the superficial surface, and ‘Y Coity’, with its lovely descriptions of a mountain across the seasons.

If you want a book that will make you want to pack up, leave the city and settle in the depths of the Welsh countryside, this is the one for you.

The one missed opportunity for me came on the cover - for a book of nature writing exclusively by women, the fact that the endorsement quotes are by men was a shame. It’s only a small thing, but when a book specifically advertises itself as celebrating female writing, perhaps they could have found Welsh female authors or personalities for the endorsement?

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly wonderful. Full review on my channel https://youtu.be/ts7ZovqOzpk