Showing the diversity of nature writing, Robert Macfarlane and Dan Richards collaborated on these two poetic evocations of unusual places. "Holloway" chronicles the duo's trip to Dorset to explore a path used by walkers for so many centuries that it has become worn down into the soft golden bedrock. Equally creative, "Ness" is a modern myth about Orford Ness, the ten-mile-long shingle spit off the coast of East Anglia, which the British government used for decades to conduct secret weapons tests. Best known for his graphic design work for Radiohead, Stanley Donwood contributes atmospheric etchings.

"A strangely lovely book…. Contemplative, impressionistic and suffused with aspects of the mythic, these pieces operate at times like prose poems."—Los Angeles Times