Ever since I began reading the Seasons Anthology from Elliott & Thompson, I have been increasingly finding myself paying more attention to the genre of non-fiction called “place” writing. Focused on the interactions of people (either the writer or others) with a particular location in conveying the Zeitgeist of the place to the reader, place writing incorporates a wide range of elements from history to psychology – and of most interest to me, nature.
Therefore when a copy of Benjamin Myers‘ new Under the Rock; the Poetry of a Place arrived on my desk, I considered it yet another fortuitous opportunity to further expand my understanding of this curiously compelling genre. Mr. Myers, author of the 2017 novel The Gallows Pole (a critically praised book most intriguingly described by Robert Macfarlane as “Sergeant Pepper meets The Omen by way of 1930s paperbacks”) possesses an intense and intricate writing style that may be just the right one to bring his readers into an appreciation of the the land around of Mytholmroyd in West Yorkshire.
If this seems a bit vague, I can only at this time offer part of the description of the book provided by the publisher:
Under the Rock is about badgers, balsam, history, nettles, mythology, moorlands, mosses, poetry, bats, wild swimming, slugs, recession, floods, logging, peacocks, community, apples, asbestos, quarries, geology, industrial music, owls, stone walls, farming, anxiety, relocation, the North, woodpiles, folklore, landslides, ruins, terriers, woodlands, ravens, dales, valleys, walking, animal skulls, trespassing, crows, factories, maps, rain – lots of rain – and a great big rock.
Any further explanation will need to await the completion of my reading of it.
