Why does landscape matter to us? We rarely articulate the often highly
individual ways it can do so. Drawing on eight remarkable unpublished
diaries, Jeremy Burchardt demonstrates that responses to landscape in
modern Britain were powerfully affected by personal circumstances,
especially those experienced in childhood and youth. Four major patterns
are identified: 'Adherers' valued landscape for its continuity,
'Withdrawers' for the refuge it provides from perceived threats,
'Restorers' for its sustaining of core value systems, and 'Explorers'
for its opportunities for self-discovery and development. Lifescapes
sets out a new approach to landscape history based on comparative
biography and deep contextualization, which has far-reaching
implications. It foregrounds family structures and relationships and the
psychological dynamics they generate. These, it is argued, were usually
a more decisive presence in landscape encounters than wider cultural
patterns and forces. Seen in this way, landscape can be understood as a
mirror reflecting our innermost selves and the psychosocial influences
shaping our development. This is a compelling and original study of the
relationship between individual lives and landscapes.
