ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which Kathleen Jamie attaches a reverential aspect to noticing. If Macfarlane is a central figure of the 'new nature writing', Jamie is often cast as a detractor from the consensus. Travelling in the company of two specialists with particular knowledges allows Jamie to develop a different kind of engagement with place than that of Macfarlane. Jamie's critical review of The Wild Places finds that its 'lovely honeyed prose' acts 'like an enchantment on the land'. She assesses 'the association of literature, remoteness, wildness and spiritually uplifted men' to be found there, and relates it to 'a tradition' of such writing that 'remains largely uninterrogated'. The ideal to which Jamie aspires, then, is a partial perspective in two senses: one that is interested in particular locales and animals, and one that is turned towards the wild and the natural but acknowledges its own domesticity.
