One of the most critically acclaimed books of 2017 comes to the Foundling Museum as a new exhibition. "The Lost Words" by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

The relationship between language and the living world is celebrated
in a new exhibition of poetry and illustration at The Foundling Museum, London.

The Lost Words is a unique collaborative project between the award-winning author Robert Macfarlane, and acclaimed artist and author Jackie Morris, that seeks to reconnect people with the natural world. Originated by Compton Verney, the exhibition presents a new series of poems and accompanying illustrations that conjure the beauty of nature, for visitors young and old. The Lost Words is a response to Macfarlane and Morris’s belief that nature
is in retreat from our children’s stories and imaginations.


Robert Macfarlane has created twenty acrostic poems or ‘spells’ focused on common nature words that are fading from use as the species themselves decline, while Jackie Morris, inspired by her lifelong passion for Britain’s landscapes and wildlife, has painted beautiful, iridescent watercolours that capture first the absence of the plant or creature within its habitat and then its return.