Jackie's Review: 'The Lark Ascending' by Richard King

The Lark Ascending: People, Music and Landscape in Twentieth Century Britain by Richard King is an unusual, eclectic and fascinating mix of a book. Taking the composer Vaughan Williams’ beloved and well-known piece ‘The Lark Ascending’ as his starting-point, Richard King goes in search of the ‘spirit’ of the British landscape and our relationship with it – from the First World War poets and the art of Paul Nash, to people’s demands for greater freedom to roam the countryside, the founding of the National Trust, Kate Bush’s ground-breaking ‘Cloud busting’, the songs sung by the women of the Greenham Common Peace Camp and the acid house parties and raves of the 1980s.  At a time when we have come to look more closely at our own relationship with the countryside and our access to it, looking back at a century where nostalgia for an idealized version of a bucolic past was tinged with real conflict and struggle, this is a really interesting book, which takes you in many unexpected directions. I would highly recommend it.