Book review: Walking On Lava: Selected Works For Uncivilised Times

In 2009, two English writers, Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth, launched what they now describe as “a tiny initiative in the back room of a pub to about 40 slightly confused people”. That initiative was The Dark Mountain Project, and its purpose – broadly speaking – was to encourage writers and artists to engage fully with what, by any objective measure, is the most pressing issue of our time, namely the destructive impact of human civilisation on the natural systems that support it. The project was launched with a 20-page “Dark Mountain Manifesto”, which calls for a new “Uncivilised” art and, in particular, “Uncivilised” writing to challenge the myths of never-ending growth and progress on which our consumer society depends.