Wild Essex: a sample

Michael Kerr — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:19:00 +0000

If you missed Robert Macfarlane’s programme last night on BBC Two, here’s a sample. Now you’ll probably want to watch the whole thing on iPlayer.

Wild Essex, minus white stilettos

Michael Kerr — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:13:50 +0000

If the phrase “wild Essex” calls nothing more to mind than a hen party in stilettos draining bottles of Bacardi Breezer, maybe you need to read the piece Robert Macfarlane wrote for yesterday’s Review section in The Guardian. It’s what he calls an alternative account of the Essex landscape. Having travelled around Britain and Ireland for his book The Wild Places, he was invited by the BBC to make a film in which he confined his explorations to that single English county. The result is due to be screened on Wednesday. It should be worth watching.