Description

A quest for belonging through the forsaken landscapes of Britain

When Steven Lovatt’s grandmother died, he lost not only a beloved family member but also his last link to the way of life she had represented: rooted in place, socially democratic, ecologically rich. Cut loose from the past and confronted with a present missing even the birds of his childhood, Steven’s mind cracked.

Drawing on field work, local library archives and oral history, as well as dreams, diaries and visions, Enchanted Ground charts a fractured course from breakdown to belonging. For if he is to survive, Steven realises he must set out, like a pilgrim, across the motorways and monoculture wastes of Britain in search of enchanted ground – and those who have begun to rebuild it.

Publisher Review

Steven Lovatt addresses a dangerous and urgent topic: how do we rediscover the sense of where and who we belong with, and not slip into nostalgia, fantasy and tribalism? In this splendid essay, Lovatt shows us how and why we need points of orientation, in mind as much as body – how, when some things are ‘fixed’, we know how to ‘place’ the other things. We’re shown here how we might re-enchant our world by opening up to the whole of our ecology, in human memory, relationship and story, as well as in place and object, learning more fully what it is to know ourselves as more than brains on sticks, and how we might at last let ourselves be fed and transformed — Rowan Williams In the best way, Lovatt makes language strange again — Noreen Masud A wise and powerful book, one that helped to answer questions I didn’t know I had, as well as questions I had but could barely articulate for myself. It describes a deeply personal journey, yet discovers meanings that are enduringly universal, and also effects the most extraordinary transformations, turning lostness into arrival, bewilderment into aliveness, and placelessness into enchantment. How might we grow roots in a broken world? To that most important of questions, this book provides a moving, memorable and beautiful answer. Read it and pass it on — Michael Malay