Jackie Morris & Robert Macfarlane ‘dream of nest’

About this episode

In this episode, Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane share their visions of rest and nature through their artistic collaboration.

A beautiful, bird-filled episode from the wonderful collaborative duo of writer Robert Macfarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris. Together they have created some of the best-loved books on the natural world in recent years, including The Lost Words. In this transcendent episode they share their quite different visions of what rest looks like for them. Robert conjures a wild, bird-filled landscape in the Scottish Cairngorms whilst Jackie imagines taking a sentient ship to a melding of The Rain Wilds and Earthsea. Full of wonder, wild knitting, ‘glacial erratics’, laughter and of course plenty of nature chat, this episode is a true salve for the soul. Links from the episode The Book of Birds by Jackie Morris and Robert MacFarlane  The Lost Words by Jackie Morris and Robert MacFarlane  The Lost Spells by Jackie Morris and Robert MacFarlane Jackie’s Instagram Jackie’s website Robert’s Instagram Deep Deep Light pain brushes and paints https://deepdeeplight.com/   A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin The Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb The Illustration Department Podcast Artist David Gentleman Read about Albrecht Dürer’s painting Young Hare here   The…

People in this episode

Host: Katherine May

Guests: Jackie Morris, Robert Macfarlane

Topics covered

• nature
• rest
• collaboration
• imagination
• art
• literature

Keywords

• nature
• rest
• Jackie Morris
• Robert Macfarlane
• The Lost Words
• imagination
• art
• literature

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Clearing, Moma

Books & works: The Lost Words, The Book of Birds, The Lost Spells, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Rain Wild Chronicles

More episodes of The Clearing with Katherine May

• Anna Brones’ Scandinavian saltwater idyll · June 11, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Alice Vincent’s joyful soundscape of human togetherness · June 4, 2026 · 56 min
• Joycelyn Longdon on imagining an abundant future · May 28, 2026 · 49 min
• Yasmin Khan’s warm seas and verdant greens · May 21, 2026 · 55 min
• Kate Bowler’s Bridge of Absurdity · May 14, 2026 · 52 min
• Jeffrey Boakye’s city path to peace · May 7, 2026 · 1h 5m