Illustrator and writer Jackie Morris (pictured left), winner of the Kate Greenaway Award, discussed the origins and inspiration of The Lost Words with Mererid Hopwood, who has written a Welsh-language version of Robert Macfarlane’s original text entitled Geiriau Diflanedig. Mererid said that as a Welsh speaker she is only too aware of how precious lost languages are, and shared a beautiful word in a Pembrokeshire dialect for the sound of a breeze in the trees at dusk: "wyllawel".
Jackie spoke of the crowd-funding required to get The Lost Words into every school and library in Britain, and what a privilege it was to work with the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, where every floor is now decorated with Jackie’s illustrations and Robert’s words. Every hospice in the UK also has a copy of the book.
Introducing her discovery of Barbara Newell Follett’s lost classic of nature writing The House Without Windows, Jackie told how the author began writing this book at a very young age, and that no-one knows what has become of her. It was well reviewed her American publisher promised that one day there would be an illustrated version. "I hope that my determination to get this book back into print, and my illustrations, are something that Barbara would have enjoyed."
Jackie live-painted two foxes on stage while conjuring up Robert’s words commissioned for The Royal Albert Hall prom and Mererid read her Welsh language creation, which enthralled the Hay audience.