December 2023
Writing Landscape: Taking Note, Making Notes, Linda Cracknell, 2023
* This is part of a small project of reading essays that focus on landscape and natural history, the idea being to familiarize myself with this genre, and develop a better sense of what I like and do not like.
This is a small book of essays, both in form (easy to tuck into a pocket), and length. The essays follow a pattern: the author sets out on a journey — either to camp out for a few days, or to attend some kind of writers’ retreat or workshop – and reflects on the place where she finds herself. Her focus is on nature, and occasionally on the history or people associated with the place; she occasionally discusses brief encounters with people, but we learn nothing of her friends or companions.
This is one of a number of books I’ve been reading to try to become more grounded in writing that addresses natural history and landscape. This book interests me because, in spite of a taking on topics that I’m interested in, the essays don’t really engage me. I’m not sure why.
Although there is a lot of competently done description of landscape and natural history, few of the descriptions get the penciled-in ‘check-plus’ that indicate what I think is particularly apt or lyrical phrasing. But there are a few exceptions:
Birdsong lofted in whirlpools above me
Linda Cracknell, Writing Landscape, p. 61
I like this sentence because she is on an island, and has been walking the beach below cliffs at low tide and reflecting on the ebb and flow of water. I like the image of whirlpools of birdsong, both because it evokes the spiraling flight of birds gliding on updrafts along the scarp, and because it creates the sense that she is underneath.
Another one I like is this:
Slant light cast the towering buttresses of the Three Sisters into slate-blue shadow whilst illuminating spangled birch leaves below them. Up we went through twisted silvery trunks and tangles of lush foliage, patches of bluebell and violet scattered alongside the steeply-falling burn.
Linda Cracknell, Writing Landscape, p. 82
I like the phrase “slant light,” and also the subsequent description which captures the effect of the “slant” as the light moves from higher up, where it casts a shadow, to lower down, where it illuminates the birch leaves. And then, in the next sentence, just as the light has been traced moving down, they move upward.
I’ve now finished the book, and although I don’t regret the time spent, neither will I seek out more of her writing. I had hoped to discern some lessons for myself about what speaks to me and what does not in reflecting on my lack of engagement, but I’m not seeing anything. No book speaks to everyone.