Words will go their own way, and carry the poet with them, on many a wild goose chase, in and out of the past, haunted by and revisiting the island where he came of age. In the new collection from the Welsh Forward Prize-shortlisted poet, nature writer and editor of the eco-literary magazine Archipelago, McNeillie explores his deep sense, in his older age, of not belonging anywhere other than in mind and in the wild.

 

McNeillie recovers and renews Pytheas the Greek’s exploration of fourth century BC Britain and Thomas Pennant’s account of Wales, but A Wild Goose Chase lays these historical accounts of the natural world beside the author’s own experiences. The poems’ moving and not unmelancholy late recollections blur temporal and spatial boundaries as they stay alive to the impacts of climate change and globalization.