Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane give the Guardian exclusive extracts as they aim to open eyes to the wonder of Britain’s declining and endangered species
W
hen the artist Jackie Morris collaborated with the writer Robert Macfarlane to celebrate the names of plants and animals controversially removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, they never imagined their book, The Lost Words, would become a cultural phenomenon.
Grassroots crowdfunding ensured the book was bought and donated to more than three-quarters of primary schools in England, Wales and Scotland and to every hospice in the country.
The book sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and was turned into classical concerts, albums, theatre, hospital murals, jigsaws and boardgames. An exhibition toured for more than a decade and the movement became the subject of a recent film, Lost For Words.
