Exclusive interview with author Anna Pavord about her book exploring remote locations in the UK
Rating: 3 Stars
Review by Gabrielle Pantera
“Walking is the only way to understand the detail of a country as diverse and complex as Britain,” says Landskipping author Anna Pavord.
“So I take the reader to my birthplace in the border country between England and Wales, to the Lake District where I explore the beginnings of the tourist industry in this country, to the Highlands of Scotland where much of Landskipping was written, in a cottage I have rented for years on the Attadale Estate. The final section of the book explores the sense of place and is very much based in West Dorset where we have lived for nearly fifty years.”
Pavord’s knowledge of the British landscape and her observations of the Brits’ love of their land is inspiring. Her descriptions of plants and the seasonal changes to the landscape paint a vivid picture. She explores Britain’s most iconic landscapes through artwork and literature, past and the present. A personal story, she has a connection to the places she’s writing about. A book to keep for years that you can pick up and put down as you become interested in different places. Makes you think about what home really is.
Thirty years as the gardening correspondent for The Independent prepared Pavord for writing Landscaping. She had a weekly column that began with the founding of the paper in 1986 and finished with the last print edition on Easter Saturday of this year.
“Landscape as a theme for a book has been in my mind for years,” says Pavord. I began with the notion that I would just explore the subject more deeply for my own pleasure, not necessarily for a book. But after four years of fairly intense and fascinating work, I decided there might be a book in the material I had, if I could organize it to my satisfaction. It took me another year to isolate the three themes…another year to actually write the book. It’s the most personal book I’ve ever written, with much of it based on my own experiences and memories.”
During her research on the first section of the book, about the first British artists to paint British landscapes, three places: the Lake District, the mountains of North Wales and the Highlands of Scotland, quickly emerged as favourite subjects.
The second section of the book drove Pavord to research the way that farming has shaped the land, the activities of agricultural “improvers” at the end of the 18th century. “I got hold of most of the reports commissioned by the Board of Agriculture which the government of the day set up to find out about how Britain was farmed and how things might be done more efficiently,” says Pavord. “Reports came in from each of the 54 counties of England and Wales. Buying antiquarian books is a great weakness. I think I can justify it because I need them for research, but actually it’s because I just love to have them on the shelf and be able to go back to them frequently A real book on your own shelf is a much quicker and more satisfying way to research than trawling around on the Internet.”
For the third part of the book, based in West Dorset, Pavord turned to her local library. “Our magnificent Dorset History Centre,” she says. “Researching the background of one village, Powerstock, through tithe maps, which were commissioned in 1839 and the first census which happened in 1841. Through these documents, you can discover people and the landscape, and know what was being grown, how people earned a living.”
Pavord has written twelve books, the most notable of the others being The Tulip (1999) and The Naming of Names (2005). “Because of my book The Tulip, a best seller, I came on four book tours in the U.S. which I loved. On book tour, you have an opportunity to meet so many people.”
Pavord has a home in West Dorset. She born in Abergavenny, a small market town in Monmouthshire, on the border between England and Wales.
Landskipping: Painters, Ploughmen and Places by Anna Pavord. Hardcover: 272 pages, Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (July 5, 2016), Language: English, ISBN: 9781408868911 $35.00
