The seeds of the idea for The Lost Words came from Robert’s earlier book, Landmarks. My idea was simple: to take some of the nature and landscape words from that book - common words that were falling from common usage - and make gold leaf, icon-like images on one page, with the dictionary definition on the opposite page. A wild dictionary, if you like. I wrote to Robert to ask if he might write the introduction. And this is where the book grew, because he saw something more, asking if I might work with him on a book.
So, it was Robert’s idea to make this a ‘spell-book’ – to have three spreads per word, the first marking a loss, a slipping away, the second being a summoning spell, and the third being the word spelled back into language, hearts, minds and landscape.