By Kathleen Jamie
Paperback, £10.99
Cairn is a collection of micro essays, poems and thoughts from the Scottish writer. As ever her focus on nature is acute, and her writing is beautiful. Lovely minimalist illustrations complement the text.
More present here than in previous works, perhaps, is the climate emergency. Jamie captures the grief of the unreliability of seasons for measuring our lives now: “But the cycles against which that mortality is played out, the great consolations, are becoming disrupted. It’s no longer sure that the seabirds will return to the cliffs here, from their wintering places out on the ocean; their numbers fall”.
There are other big themes. Reflections on earlier protests, at Greenham Common, echoed in environmental activism now. Turning 60 and losing parents. But my favourite pages were about the joy of receiving a curlew skull in the post, wrapped in a box that had held luxury mints. The very treatness of it made me smile. Her neighbour has befriended jackdaws and receives shiny thanks: “recently she’s received a 5p piece, a single amber earring and, amazingly, a small coin from Hong Kong”.
The cover reflects the nature of the book, being deceptively simple but striking and thoughtful. A book to sit with and reflect upon.