The Root & the Wing

The Root and the Wing is a collection of lyrical poetry and prose ‘sketches’, some of which first featured in shortened form in the ‘Country Diary’ column of The Guardian. It is a vibrant celebration of life rooted in place and people. Julie Armstrong’s to-the-heart connection with the natural world, with family and notions of ‘home’ is both acutely observed and passionately felt. She evokes the ancient Cheshire landscape, capturing the turnings of the year – the ‘keen-green’ of spring, the lushness of summer afternoons, the eeriness of autumn nightfall and the wildness of mid-winter dawns.The collection contemplates a rich family history told through shells treasured from the shore and apples stored for winter. The threat of loss is never far away but neither is delight in a shared present. We are offered these moments re-made on the page, almost as ‘a photograph’ might, but a photograph made ‘with…words’. The vibrant language, haunting imagery and subtle rhythms of this writing lead us from meditations on herons, badgers, primroses and bug hotels to the sighting of the first swallow of the year and the hope this brings. This ‘scrapbook’ is about passing on a passion for the natural world, it shares poignant observations of rural life with a multigenerational focus. We have glimpses of a wild childhood remembered, of motherhood, parenting and grand-parenting and of the quick-silver minds of the young as they find their way into nature. It communicates this conversation between adult and child, child and adult with urgency, warmth and a lightness of touch. Part autobiography and part incantation, this collection rejoices in the small details and mysteries of the everyday. The poetry pulses and takes flight, shifting perspective and time. It is mesmerizing and kaleidoscopic but grounded in finely drawn prose, capturing a wonder and delight in the threads that bind generation to generation and all to place.