One of the most eagerly anticipated books of a bumper publishing season, The Lost Spells looks set to emulate the success of The Lost Words, which was the bestselling poetry book of 2018, sold 500,000 copies worldwide and was adapted into everything from classical music to puppet theatre, murals on hospital walls, and jigsaws and boardgames. Beguiling but hard to classify, she calls it “a lullaby in a minor key” and hopes it will find readers amid bookshops’ “cacophony of stories”. Asked whether there was an environmental message in The Lost Spells, Morris said: “It’s a celebration of the nearby wild. If there is a message there, it is simply wonder and awe at the beautiful complexity of the non-human. And respect, for the wisdom of trees, the shape of a bird, the wild of the fox.” The exhibition will also feature a recording of a song by vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Cosmo Sheldrake. Children will be able to write their own spell-poems before speaking them into the wind, dress-up as wildlife, and take part in arts and crafts based activities led by Northumberland National Park Rangers. There will also be a range of self-led walks for people to explore the National Park’s landscape.

For me, personally, that book was beautiful but too large (impractical) and seeing this new collaboration, I probably wasn't the only one. Capturing the imagination of folk music's finest, ...gently reflective collection of original songs" Writer, Robert Macfarlane, said: “The fabulously varied landscapes of the North East are close to my heart – from coast to moor, forest to hill-top – so it’s a joy to see our book The Lost Spells at the centre of this brilliantly curated and original exhibition at The Sill. I hope that it will help visitors young and old to listen afresh to nature’s wild wonders, and to tune in to the lives, songs and voices of the creatures and plants with whom we share the world.”The Lost Spells: Listening to a Landscape of Voices is an immersive exhibition which features original artwork, soundscapes and interactive experiences. The front of each card bears one of Morris's Greenaway Medal-winning paintings; on the reverse, you will find an accompanying quotation from one of the spell-poems in the Lost books, as well as identification of the species shown on the card. The remaining space is left blank for you to fill in these wild cards with pen, pencil or paint– and then send them out into the world to make and renew connections.

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons — the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.

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A century after the great nature writer Henry Beston insisted that we need “a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals,” observing how “in a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear,” Macfarlane and Morris bring us the mystery and wisdom of wild things as complementary and consolatory to our tame incompleteness.

Javelin sends a spear shaped object flying at high speeds. If it hits the ground or a player then it will start pulsating high amounts of damage. The group have announced they will turn The Lost Spells into another album and they hope to tour the new music next year. A fun, wild and boisterous adventure full of paw-tapping music and dancing, played live on-stage by talented actor-musicians, The Lost Spells is a riot of colour and a new Alice in Wonderland, celebrating the magic, power and wonder of nature that could be just outside your window.The Lost Spells: Listening to a Landscape of Voices opens at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre in Northumberland on Saturday 23 July 2022 and runs until 4 June 2023.

Wonderful activities and ideas celebrating the magic of nature and language which can be used standalone or consecutively as a cross-curricular scheme of work in English, Science, Art, PSHE and to support research skills. Each section takes one of the animals or items from nature featured in each spell, and invites children to Seek, Find, Speak, Write and/or Create their response with extracts and illustrations from the book to support and inspire learning: Nature is so big and spectacular and deeply magical and The Lost Words delivered that to children in a way that’s not magic dust and wands,” she said. “So much educational material for children is a bit boring or dumbed-down and this just gave them permission for their imaginations to run wild.”The love of and for nature that Macfarlane and Morris are feeling is palpable - and infectuous. I also found myself learning the odd thing or two while reading their books. A glorious blend of music and pictures celebrating British wildlife with all kinds of fantastic folk players involved.”