Robert Macfarlane's Untrue Island: the voices of Orford Ness

Orford Ness, a haunting strip of marshland off the Suffolk coast, was used by the army to test bombs and spy on the Soviets. Robert Macfarlane on why it inspired him to write his first librettoLying just off the Suffolk coast is a desert. Orford Ness is a vast shingle spit, some 12 miles long and up to a mile wide, which curls offshore round from Aldeburgh down to Hollesley. For most of the 20th century, the Ness was owned by the Ministry of Defence, for whom its natural security and secrecy mad...

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