Twelve Words for Moss
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Summary
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2024
Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2023 for Nature Writing
'Exquisite, luminous and quietly radical . . . utterly unique and refreshing' Lucy Jones
Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2023 for Nature Writing
'Exquisite, luminous and quietly radical . . . utterly unique and refreshing' Lucy Jones
Where nothing grows, moss is the spark that triggers new life. Embarking on a journey though landscape, memory and recovery, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett explores this mysterious, ancient marvel of the plant world, meditating on and renaming her favourite mosses – from Glowflake to Little Loss – and drawing inspiration from place, people and language itself.
'Fascinating, subtle and risk-taking . . . Poetry, descriptive-evocative prose, memory, memoir, natural history and more all drift and mingle in strikingly new ways' Robert Macfarlane
Reviews
Twelve Words for Moss is a fascinating, subtle and risk-taking book; its remarkable opening pages in particular dis-orient and re-orient the reader, readying us for the forms of attention-giving to the overlooked and undersung world of mosses which the rest of the book beautifully practices. Poetry, descriptive-evocative prose, memory, memoir, natural history and more all drift and mingle in strikingly new ways in Burnett's book, down at the "boundary layer" where this ancient, modest life flourishes so generatively
Robert Macfarlane
