With great warmth and enthusiasm, Robert Macfarlane shares his appreciation for the way words can illuminate and enhance our relationship with nature. Landmarks is a scholarly meditation, with Macfarlane following in the footsteps—and highlighting the brilliance— of some of his most admired nature writers. The book is also a dazzling gift for language and nature lovers, featuring glossaries of words (both ancient and modern) that describe the landscape of the United Kingdom with poetic precision. The collection of "Waterlands" terms, for example, includes taghairm ("noise; echo; type of divination by listening to the noise of waterfalls"), bumbel ("to flounder around in water"), and gaffle ("of ducks: to feed together in the mud"). This is a unique work of beauty and wonder, both particular and universal.