Are we listening hard enough to the sounds of nature? Collaborators Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris join Lemn to ask this question. With the help of the British Library sound archive, (see credits below) they’re summoning back the lost sounds and words of the natural world.

Robert is a fellow at the University of Cambridge and known for his books on landscape and nature. Jackie is an illustrator and writer. Together, they created the book The Lost Words to ‘conjure back the near-lost magic and strangeness of the nature that surrounds us.’ Since then, they’ve made The Lost Spells, a book of spell-poems to be spoken aloud.

In this listening party, they eavesdrop on a conversation between broadcaster David Attenborough and sound recordist Chris Watson; learn about Bill Bailey’s love of birdwatching and hear from passionate bird recordist Pamela Fursman who started recording birdsong in the 1940s.

A Pixiu Production.

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance: 

A conversation between sound recordist Chris Watson and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. 

This event was recorded in 2017 at the British Library 

Full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixNM4EM-XgA  

A Common Toad, Wales, March 1989. It was recorded in Radnor, Wales in 1989 by husband and wife team Eric & May Nobles. 

British Library shelfmark: WS6358 C2 

Wiccan Doreen Valiente talks about Beltane and May Day, recorded at Hollingbury Castle on 1st May 1976. This clip was made for a BBC Brighton show called Coffee Break. Copyright of BBC and the Doreen Valiente Foundation.  

British Library shelfmark: UTK006/653 

Pamela Fursman speaking about her bird recordings. In the 1940s, Pamela heard The Naturalist programme on the radio (a series that led to the formation of the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol) and this inspired her to start making her own recordings. 

British Library shelfmark: UBC075/8 

English cellist Beatrice Harrison performing in her garden, supposedly alongside a singing nightingale. The exact date of this particular recording is unknown, but BBC Radio first broadcast a duet between Harrison and a nightingale in 1924 as an experiment. Copyright of BBC. 

British Library shelfmark: C1186/193 

A European Nightjar. This field recording was made by Rex Ashby in Hampshire in 1984. 

British Library shelfmark: WS0942

Bill Bailey taking part in ‘Bird is the Word’ event recorded by the British Library in April 2021 to celebrate all things avian. 

Full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrhDFFQrtN0 

A Montezuma Oropendola or New World blackbird. This was recorded by Richard Ranft in Costa Rica in 1985. 

British Library shelfmark: WS4805