RaveNew Statesman... brave, thorough ... fascinating, eerie and strange. And because the author has chosen to, it eventually nudges towards the optimistic ... There is some thrilling writing here, a fine way with the telling detail, and a plea for radical revisioning of what we mean by \'nature\' and \'wild\'. One wonders if there is a Pollyanna-ism at work, a willed optimism that might provide licence for future destruction because, we might say, sometime in the deep future, life will prevail. Flyn is alert to this, acknowledges that she is focusing on the silver linings – and acknowledges, too, the heavy losses that will result from global warming. The pockets of enticing abandonment we create with a mine here or a quarry there will be as nought to the Earth-changing, human-induced climate change. When it comes to planetary impact, \'We are the meteor, we are the volcano.\' And what will survive of that?
Jonathan Bate
RaveNew Statesman (UK)As when a conservator carefully swabs away from an oil painting the crusty accretions and gunk of ages to reveal shining colours and unexpected detail—so Jonathan Bate sets about the youthful Wordsworth, and shows us, page by page, just how world-changing he really was ... Bate is rigorous in restoring women to their full role in the times, as poets, novelists, artists and influencers, as well as lovers and helpmeets ... With wonderful elan, close reading and detective work, Bate blows the chalk-dust away from [\'Tintern Abbey\'] and presents it anew. It shines with edginess ... Bate’s book is thrilling on Wordsworth’s times and contemporaries.
