Cairn: 'A marvel of a book' Observer

Cairn (n.): a marker on open land, a memorial, a viewpoint shared by strangers

As she reached her 60th year, the acclaimed author and poet Kathleen Jamie turned to a new form of writing: personal notes, prose poems, micro-essays, fragments. In her new book they are arranged together like the stones of a wayside cairn, marking changes to an inner and outer landscape.

The virtuosity of these short pieces is both subtle and deceptive. Jamie’s intent noticing of the natural world is suffused with a clear-eyed awareness of all we endanger. She considers the future her children face, while recalling her own childhood, and notes the lost innocence in the way we respond to the dramas of nature. With meticulous care, she marks the point she has reached in life and within the cascading crises of our times.

Cairn resonates with a beauty and wisdom that only an artist of Jamie’s calibre could achieve