Martin Johnson

In this short volume, Martin Johnson, inspired by Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways, has extracted poems from Macfarlane’s very poetical prose in much the same way that Edward Thomas, a poet loved by both writers, was inspired by Robert Frost to do the same with his own prose writings.

“… creative elisions, omissions and reconfiguring… newness from familiar lines”

Robert Macfarlane

“I think his experiment is very interesting and shows – for me – that when you read prose your mind tends to grasp the poetry from it, and elide the rest – so that when you try to recall what you have read it is the poetic fragments that come back. I’ve never seen anyone carry this idea into practice, as Johnson does with such skill.”

John Carey