Author Guide · Nature Writing
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In 2007 the Oxford Junior Dictionary dropped words such as acorn, bluebell, kingfisher and wren, and made room for broadband and voicemail. Robert Macfarlane, a Cambridge literature don born in Nottinghamshire in 1976, answered with The Lost Words, a book of spells for those twenty words, painted by Jackie Morris. It was one turn in a career spent writing about land and the language for it: mountains in his first book, Mountains of the Mind (2003), the wild corners of Britain and Ireland, old footpaths, the world underground in Underland (2019) and, in 2025, rivers. He has won the Wainwright Prize twice, for Underland and for The Book of Birds. This guide covers his 11 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 key books · 2003–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Robert Macfarlane has published 11 key books, from Mountains of the Mind (2003) to The Book of Birds (2026). The best known are Underland (2019), a journey through caves, catacombs and burial chambers, The Old Ways (2012), about walking ancient paths, and The Lost Words (2017), with Jackie Morris. Start with Underland. Below are all eleven in order, with his other books and where each one leads.
Where to Start with Robert Macfarlane
If you want the book everyone means
→ Underland (2019) — a descent into caves, catacombs and deep time.
If you want a book about walking
→ The Old Ways (2012) — old paths across Britain and beyond, on foot.
If you want something short to read aloud
→ The Lost Words (2017) — twenty nature words, as spells, with Jackie Morris.
If you want his newest long book
→ Is a River Alive? (2025) — three rivers, and whether they have rights.
11 Robert Macfarlane Books, in Order
Mountains of the Mind
His first book traces how Western attitudes to mountains changed, from places of fear to objects of desire, and mixes that history with his own climbing. George Mallory, who died on Everest in 1924, is one of its central figures. The title comes from Gerard Manley Hopkins. It won the Guardian First Book Award and the Somerset Maugham Award, and was shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize.
The Wild Places
In fifteen chapters Macfarlane goes looking for the wild places left in Britain and Ireland: Ynys Enlli off the Welsh coast, the valley of Coruisk on Skye, the Black Wood of Rannoch, the Burren, a frozen Lake District tarn in a blizzard. His friend and mentor Roger Deakin joins some of the journeys, and the book is written in his memory. Along the way his idea of wildness moves from the remote to the close at hand. It won the Boardman Tasker Prize.
The Old Ways
Walks along old paths: the chalk Icknield Way, the Broomway out across the Essex tidal flats, the Cairngorms, the Outer Hebrides, and journeys in Spain, Palestine and Sichuan. The poet Edward Thomas, who wrote about paths before he was killed at Arras in 1917, is the book’s guide, and it ends with his story. It was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the Dolman Best Travel Book Award.
Holloway
In July 2005 Macfarlane and Roger Deakin explored the holloways of south Dorset, sunken lanes worn deep into the sandstone. Six years later, after Deakin’s death, he went back with the writer Dan Richards and the artist Stanley Donwood. This short book, with Donwood’s illustrations, first appeared in a limited edition of 277 copies that sold out within six weeks; Faber published it in 2013.
Landmarks
A book about the words people have used for land, weather and nature, with glossaries of place-language, much of it Gaelic and dialect, after most chapters. Between them come chapters on writers who saw landscape closely: Nan Shepherd in the Cairngorms, Roger Deakin, J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine, Jacquetta Hawkes and John Muir. It was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the Hay Festival Medal for Prose.
The Lost Words
A large illustrated book of twenty “spells”, from acorn to wren, for nature words dropped from the 2007 Oxford Junior Dictionary. For each word, scattered letters spell it out, then Morris paints the creature or plant in watercolour and gold leaf, and Macfarlane’s acrostic poem is meant to be read aloud. It shared the 2018 British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year, and Morris won the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal for its illustrations.
Underland
A journey into the world beneath our feet: caves in the Mendips, the Boulby mine in Yorkshire, the catacombs of Paris, the Carso in Italy, sea caves with prehistoric paintings in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, the Greenland ice cap, and finally Olkiluoto in Finland, where nuclear waste is to be stored deep underground. It is about burial, darkness and deep time. It won the 2019 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize and was later made into a documentary film.
Ness
A short “modern myth” set on a salt-and-shingle island. A figure called the Armourer prepares a ritual inside a ruined concrete building, the Green Chapel, while five more-than-human forms cross land and sea to stop him. Part novella, part prose-poem, part mystery play, with drawings by Stanley Donwood.
The Lost Spells
A pocket-sized companion to The Lost Words: new acrostic spells, again painted by Jackie Morris, for creatures and plants of woodland, field, river and sea, from jays and oaks to grey seals. It is written to be read aloud.
Is a River Alive?
Macfarlane travels to three threatened rivers: those of the Los Cedros cloud forest in Ecuador, the polluted rivers of Chennai in India, and the Mutehekau Shipu (Magpie River) in Quebec, whose rights have been recognised in law. Between the journeys he returns to a small chalk spring near his home in Cambridge. The book asks whether rivers can be seen as living beings with rights, and follows the Rights of Nature movement. It became a number one bestseller in the UK.
The Book of Birds
A large illustrated book on 49 declining or endangered British birds, from avocet to yellowhammer. For each, Macfarlane writes about habits, song, flight, nesting, folklore and threats, and Morris paints in watercolour and gold; seven sections cover the “wonders” of nest, egg, beak, song, feather, flight and migration. It won the Illustrative Books category and the overall Wainwright Prize Book of the Year in 2026.
In What Order to Read Robert Macfarlane
None of Macfarlane’s books continues from another, so you can read them in any order. Reading his first three, Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places and The Old Ways, in order shows his idea of wildness moving from mountain summits to the ground under ordinary paths. Landmarks then turns from places to the words for them, and Underland goes below the surface.
The illustrated books with Jackie Morris, The Lost Words, The Lost Spells and The Book of Birds, are made for reading aloud and suit any age. Holloway and Ness are short and can be read in an evening. Is a River Alive? is his most openly political book, and works best after Underland.
A reading path
1. Underland (2019)
2. The Old Ways (2012)
3. The Wild Places (2007)
4. Is a River Alive? (2025)
5. The Lost Words (2017)
Everything Else Robert Macfarlane Published
Beyond the 11 key books: 3 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Academic, essays and edited books
3
3 books · 2007–2018
- 2007Original Copyhis academic study of plagiarism and originality in nineteenth-century literature
- 2016The Gifts of Readinga short essay on books given and received
- 2018A People’s Manifesto for Wildlifeco-edited with Chris Packham and Patrick Barkham
The years · 1976–2025
Quick facts about Robert Macfarlane
- Known for
- Writing about landscape, walking and the language of nature, from mountains and old paths to the world underground.
- 1976
- Born in Halam, Nottinghamshire
- 2003
- First book, Mountains of the Mind
- 2019
- Underland
- 2025
- Is a River Alive?
- Born
- 15 August 1976, Halam, Nottinghamshire
- Education
- Nottingham High School; Pembroke College, Cambridge; Magdalen College, Oxford
- Work
- Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities, University of Cambridge; Fellow of Emmanuel College
- Family
- Married to the historian Julia Lovell; three children
- Collaborators
- The artists Jackie Morris and Stanley Donwood, the musician Johnny Flynn, the director Jennifer Peedom
- Prizes
- Guardian First Book Award (2003); Boardman Tasker Prize (2007); Wainwright Prize (2019, 2026); two Samuel Johnson Prize shortlists
The red mark is 2019: Underland, his journey into the world underground and winner of the Wainwright Prize.
How Robert Macfarlane Writes: Walking, Words and Deep Time
Almost every Macfarlane book is built on journeys he makes himself, usually on foot and often with a companion: Roger Deakin in The Wild Places and Holloway, cavers and scientists in Underland, river guardians in Is a River Alive?. He writes in the first person and in the present of the walk, then opens out into history, geology and the lives of the people he meets.
He also writes about other writers. Edward Thomas guides The Old Ways, and Landmarks gives whole chapters to Nan Shepherd, J.A. Baker and Jacquetta Hawkes. Words themselves are a subject: the glossaries of dialect and Gaelic place-language in Landmarks, and the twenty dropped dictionary words of The Lost Words. Critics have objected at times to an ornamental style, with an abundance of rare words and images.
Time scales keep growing. His early books look back over centuries of human attitudes to mountains and paths; Underland thinks in deep time, from prehistoric cave paintings to a store for nuclear waste in Finland. Since The Lost Words he has worked more and more with artists and musicians, and Is a River Alive? moves from description to argument about the rights of nature.
Watch
Robert Macfarlane: The Waterstones Interview
Interviewed by Waterstones in April 2025, Macfarlane talks about Is a River Alive? and the journeys behind it, from the cloud forest of Ecuador onwards, and about rivers as more than matter for human use.
Frequently asked questions about Robert Macfarlane’s books
How many books has Robert Macfarlane written?
Eleven key books, from Mountains of the Mind (2003) to The Book of Birds (2026), all listed on this page; four of them are collaborations, with Jackie Morris, Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards. He has also published an academic study, Original Copy (2007), the short essay The Gifts of Reading (2016), and co-edited A People’s Manifesto for Wildlife (2018).
What are Robert Macfarlane’s books in order?
Mountains of the Mind (2003), The Wild Places (2007), The Old Ways (2012), Holloway (2012), Landmarks (2015), The Lost Words (2017), Underland (2019), Ness (2019), The Lost Spells (2020), Is a River Alive? (2025) and The Book of Birds (2026).
Where should I start with Robert Macfarlane?
With Underland (2019), his best-known book and winner of the Wainwright Prize. If you would rather walk than go underground, start with The Old Ways; for something short to read aloud, The Lost Words.
What is Robert Macfarlane’s most famous book?
Underland: A Deep Time Journey (2019), which took him from caves in the Mendips and the catacombs of Paris to the Greenland ice cap and a nuclear waste store in Finland. It won the 2019 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize. The Lost Words (2017), with Jackie Morris, is the best known of his illustrated books.
Why was The Lost Words written?
Because the 2007 edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary dropped nature words such as acorn, bluebell, kingfisher and wren, while adding words like broadband and voicemail. Macfarlane wrote a spell for twenty of those words, from acorn to wren, and Jackie Morris painted them. The book shared the 2018 British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year, and Morris won the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal for its illustrations.
What is Is a River Alive? about?
It follows Macfarlane to three threatened rivers: in the Los Cedros cloud forest in Ecuador, in the city of Chennai in India, and the Mutehekau Shipu, or Magpie River, in Quebec. It asks whether a river can be thought of as a living being, and looks at the movement to give rivers legal rights. It was published in 2025.
Has Robert Macfarlane won the Wainwright Prize?
Twice: in 2019 for Underland, and in 2026 for The Book of Birds, with Jackie Morris, which was named Book of the Year. His other prizes include the Guardian First Book Award for Mountains of the Mind and the Boardman Tasker Prize for The Wild Places. He was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for The Old Ways and for Landmarks.
Have any of his books been adapted?
Yes. The Wild Places was filmed for BBC Two’s Natural World in 2010. He worked with the director Jennifer Peedom on the documentary Mountain (2017), narrated by Willem Dafoe, and Underland became a documentary film that premiered at the Tribeca Festival in 2025. He has also written lyrics for the musician Johnny Flynn.
Is Robert Macfarlane still alive?
Yes. He was born on 15 August 1976 in Halam, Nottinghamshire, and is Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities at the University of Cambridge. His most recent books are Is a River Alive? (2025) and The Book of Birds (2026).
Footnotes
- Robert Macfarlane (writer) — Wikipedia
- Mountains of the Mind — Wikipedia
- Robert Macfarlane wins the 2019 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize — Wainwright Prize
- Bird book tops pecking order — The Ecologist, 2026
- 2019 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals announced — School Library Journal
- The Thing with Rivers — Dublin Review of Books, 2025
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Rivers are easily wounded. But given a chance, they heal themselves with remarkable speed.”
— Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive? (2025)
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