Robert Macfarlane

Hello—The Book of Birds by me & the artist Jackie Morris is published…today A re-imagining of the field guide/bird book for our age of wonder & loss, from Avocet to Yellowhammer. Jackie has painted over 300 original artworks for it; I’ve tried to let language soar, glide & plunge. For the birds!

"This is not your typical field guide." THE BOOK OF BIRDS from @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and Jackie Morris is a B&N Book of the Year finalist! www.barnesandnoble.com/collections/...

“Hope is a discipline and despair is a luxury… And the best antidote to despair is repair” A privilege to hear @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social give the first of his Reith Lectures tonight - on the human superiority complex, and how we become interdependent with the rest of nature again

Brazilian Amazon deforestation falls to lowest level on record as pivotal vote looms for President Lula New data shows forest clearance fell by 71.2% since 2022, the final year of Bolsonaro administration. Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"A national election, that of Brazil, which will affect the 8.3 billion people who inhabit this world. The Amazon, according to scientific evidence, is close to reaching a point of no return. Returning to the deforestation levels of 2022 (Bolsonaro) would be the final blow" x.com/ActisAndres/...

Catastrophe In Brazil with the far right surging State races, senate and congress races all going for the far right Presidential race going to a second round thankfully with bolsonaro’s son under 50 percent www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

I agree with Al Gore on a whole lot of things but he's profoundly wrong on almost everything he says in this piece, and is adopting fossil-fuel industry style talking points that he's previously criticised A short thread on why............. www.ft.com/content/ba94...

It's our pleasure to announce that the 2026 winner of the Wainwright Prize Book of the Year is... The Book of Birds, Jackie Morris and @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social (Hamish Hamilton) #WainwrightPrize #StoriesThatConnect

environmentaldefence.ca/2026/09/04/c...

We're pleased to announce details of the CD release of @hannahpeel.bsky.social’s original score for Underland — Robert Petit’s film based on the @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social book of the same name.

‘Honest Bob’ Jenrick says he wants to “abolish” Natural England, and at the very least stop funding it, in the first 100 days of a putative Reform government. Reform may appear to be on the rocks currently but their plans are terrifying, mad & must be stopped. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

This is a pleasant discovery on R4extra. @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social reading his book Underland. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/serie...

These whistleblower allegations are extraordinary. If Trump Administration officials knowingly built a system designed to prevent Americans from receiving their ballots, that is not election security. It is a betrayal of our Constitution and the American people.

The president is threatening to sue a think tank for $5 billion unless they retract a report stating that his National Guard deployments to American cities under the guise of fake emergencies didn't make those cities safer. It's like a Con Law exam question about executive abuse of power.

Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show

I have just finished this latest book from @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social . It's hard to believe that his word magic could get even better, more strikingly beautiful, but it does. I think all the superlatives applied to it are valid. But it has left me with an aching sadness.

Finished last night. Answers the question that we all intuitively know the answer to, but can't articulate the reasoning. So many sentences stopped me in my tracks. Solid thumbs up. #booksky📚 #robertmacfarlane #rivers #reading #books #nature

Not a lot of books give me chills, but @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social “Is a River Alive?” did. The passage surrounding the location of the proposed dam on the Mutehekau Shipu was so powerful I stopped and reread it 3x. Phenomenal book, 5 out 5 stars for me.

This is the coverage of Arday **just in the Telegraph** in the UK. This is only the first four pages of results, just in one outlet.

Earthy Governance: How to Learn about Democracy from Indigenous Peoples? @shrishteebajpai.bsky.social & I propose an Earth-centered form of democracy, the idea that all of nature has agency in decision-making. berlinergazette.de/earthy-gover... @berlinergazette.bsky.social @vikalpsangam.bsky.social

I wrote (briefly and elliptically) about the phrase I've been thinking about most from @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social’s 𝘐𝘴 𝘈 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦? A river is not a person but ‘a god. For now, I want to call the river 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘥.’ www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Beautiful and informative interview on BBC Today with @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and Dr Louise Bodnar, Voice of the River Wye, ahead of the Rights of the River Wye charter launch tomorrow in Hay on Wye. Listen from 13.40 minutes: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

'A 2007 analysis...found that wild salmon in the Broughton Archipelago were “on a trajectory toward rapid local extinction,” driven by infestations of sea lice from nearby farms.' Then people fought back: story.futureoffood.org/beacons/cana...

“First week of May — and ears are peeled each day for that bodkin-shriek and devil-cry, for the screaming that comes across the sky…” They’re back! The Swifts are back, and the world has turned once more... My first swifts of the year, thrillingly, spine-tinglingly, above Oxford. Seen them yet?

I had a small part in writing OUR LAND, Orban Wallace’s brilliant new film about land access in England, feat. @guyshrubsole.bsky.social et al. “We’ve found that [with access] people really do care for the land…We all belong to the land, it doesn’t belong to us.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

On May 7th I & the artist Jackie Morris publish The Book of Birds, our love-letter to birds & our re-imagining of the humble, wonderful field guide/bird book form. Jackie’s painted more than 300 new pieces of art for the book; a jaw-dropping body of work. First set of events detailed below. Come!

- clean energy surpassed global growth in demand in 2025 - fossil fuel power went into reverse for the first time - coal power dropped to less than a third of global power generation In spite of every obstacle put in its way, renewable energy just keeps growing share.google/oojbxRlHpm7G...

118 angels soar aloft in the hammerbeam roof of a Fenland church—their carved feathers echoing the wings of the Marsh Harriers who once lived in this region in abundance. I made a Radio 4 programme about the entanglements of ornithology & theology, raptors & raptures. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Finished @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social’s Is A River Alive, and could have underlined the whole thing. A call to arms to protect our waterways.

Is a River Alive @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social is an absolute wonder. Part call to action, part hopeful manifesto all immersive reading. If you can read it on audiobook DO. Macfarlane narrates himself. To listen is to be fully engaged in the wonder, the tragedy, and the glory of natural communities.

Finally been absorbing this deeply inspiring book. Fitting that I'll finish it today on Earth Day. Covering far more than rivers themselves, it explores what it means to be a living part of our world, and our relationships & responsibilities to the more-than-human collaborators sharing this journey.

hello—on Monday 20 April @curzon.com Soho is showing Lost For Words, a beautiful film about language, nature & hope based on The Lost Words by me & Jackie Morris. Jackie & I will both be there for a Q&A. Please let others know who might be interested—& come join us! www.curzon.com/films/lost-f...

The @nationaltrust.org.uk only rarely ask their members to take political action, but when they do, it’s seismic. Please take the NT’s action, email your MP demanding the Government protect 30% of the UK for nature by 2030: campaigns.nationaltrust.org.uk/page/186395/... bsky.app/profile/nati...

After some time litter picking by the Water of Leith, I thought I'd reward myself with a couple of pints at my favourite pub, the Dreadnought and continue reading @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social Is A River Alive?, a fabulous read.

Massacre upon massacre in Beirut in the last hour. AUBMC announced a “code disaster.” Over 100 airstrikes in 10 minutes across the country. One hit right behind my house. Sirens ambulances & the smell of sulphur. The city is in total chaos the people in complete panic

Book no 15: Is A River Alive? Part travel, part conservation, part philosophy, this is @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social's passionate plea for us to recognise the importance of rivers. His writing is lyrical, at times almost a prose-poem, and utterly immersive. An important and compelling work. #Booksky📚

The spectacular film adaptation of my book Underland is in cinemas as of Friday. More details at: www.underlandfilm.com Working on more screenings in Scotland, Wales & NI.

Announcing a deal to pay $1 billion to stop two wind farms, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said: “The era of taxpayers subsidizing unreliable, unsecure energy is officially over.” Hours later, a massive American oil refinery accidentally exploded, spiking gas prices nationwide

“This isn’t just about my livelihood – it’s about justice for the lough before there’s nothing left for the next generation.” The slow murder of Lough Neagh—the largest lake on the island of Ireland & across the British Isles—is a tragedy and a travesty. Go go Declan Conlon.

Coming to the US in June from @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social: The paperback of his NY Times bestseller IS A RIVER ALIVE?, and his third magnificent collaboration with the artist Jackie Morris, THE BOOK OF BIRDS.

The New School of the Anthropocene is an experimental micro-university, which offers an affordable, radical, alternative to mainstream higher ed. I teach there each year & we have students from Gaza, Ukraine & around the world. 2026 enrolment is now open. www.nsota.org @nsota.bsky.social

On the origins & making of the film adaptation of my book Underland, including director Rob Petit on needing to become “a buttered otter” to film where he did! In UK cinemas from 27 March www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

They said it would take 193 years to clean London’s air. We did it in nine. 💨 London has now met legal limits for nitrogen dioxide air pollution.

There's a broken cuneiform tablet from the Old Babylonian period, nearly 4,000 years ago, which preserves a tiny portion of a dialogue between two friends. It feels a bit like the conversations I've been having for the past week, so I wanted to share it.

This is a really important @katiesurma.bsky.social piece on the strategic state silencing of land & water defenders in Ecuador—including colleagues of mine—as Noboa’s gov. moves to intensify mining & drilling (Trump playbook). Please share widely. insideclimatenews.org/news/1003202...

“Winston Churchill did intervene in Iran and we are living with the consequences of that today” @georgemonbiot.bsky.social