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Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm Paperback – 21 Mar. 2019

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 3,752 ratings

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‘A poignant, practical and moving story of how to fix our broken land, this should be conservation's salvation; this should be its future; this is a new hope’ – Chris Packham

Winner of the Richard Jefferies Society / White Horse Book Shop Award for Nature Writing


In
Wilding, Isabella Tree tells the story of the ‘Knepp experiment’, a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife.

Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside,
Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope.

Highly Commended by the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing

'One of the landmark ecological books of the decade' –
The Sunday Times

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From the Publisher

Wilding, Knepp Estate, Re-wilding, british countryside, bestseller
Wilding, Knepp Estate, Re-wilding, british countryside, bestseller
Wilding, Knepp Estate, Re-wilding, british countryside, bestseller
Wilding
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Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm
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Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back - An Illustrated Guide
Customer Reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars 3,752
4.7 out of 5 stars 52
Price £10.05 £15.79
Illustrated in full colour
Photographs from Knepp
Lino prints and watercolours by Angela Harding

Product description

Review

This must be the most inspirational nature book of the year . . . a narrative of conservation, courage, vision and miracles... The story of what happened is thrilling . . . the Knepp Conservation Project is world-famous: a beacon of hope . . . Read this book and marvel. -- Bel Mooney, 'The Year's Best Books on Nature' ― Daily Mail

Particularly timely . . . an excellent primer, and
anyone who is interested in how we share the planet ― what it looks like, what we eat, and what nature can teach us ― should read this book.Sunday Times

A poignant, practical and moving story of how to fix our broken land, this should be conservation's salvation; this should be its future; this is a new hope. --
Chris Packham, presenter of The Really Wild Show

I recently read
Wilding, by Isabella Tree, where she and her husband take their over-farmed, not-profitable estate, and rewild it. Thousands of species return. It will have you in tears. Life exploding again - the reverse of most stories today. Hugely recommended. -- Caitlin Moran (on Twitter)

The remarkable story of an astounding transformation. --
George Monbiot, author of Feral

Wilding shines brilliantly . . . . Isabella Tree writes [. . .] with infectious enthusiasm . . . The project she writes about so winningly . . . is inspirational – and inspiration is needed. ― Evening Standard

A hugely important addition to the literature of what can be done to restore soil and soul . . . Tree writes with grace about a legion of doubts, obstructions and delays. The book contains moments of lyricism and revelation. -- Caspar Henderson ― Guardian

Close to my book of the year.
If there’s anything better, I haven’t read it yet . . . An uplifting story and points towards a different sort of farmed future. -- Marcus Berkmann, 'Best Books for Summer Reading' ― Daily Mail

'Wilding is both a timely and important book . . . Isabella Tree imagines the last migrating turtledove departing Knepp and flying over a Europe “that is being recolonized by beavers, wolves, wolverines, jackals and bears.” And it is in that changing landscape that hope resides.' -- Tim Flannery ― New York Review of Books

Every farmer (and perhaps every conservationist) in Britain needs to go and spend a day at Knepp. The Knepp ‘wilding’ project is a vitally important experiment for working out what we can do to let Nature back into our farmed landscapes . . . This book tells this vital story and deserves to be widely read. --
James Rebanks, author of A Shepherd’s Life

Read
Wilding by Isabella Tree . . . Thrilling. -- India Knight ― The Times

This
honest, thoroughly researched and deeply hopeful book will appeal to everyone - especially farmers - who is concerned about how intensive farming practices are degrading the environment and how to restore nature to ravaged lands. -- Ten Of The Best Books About Climate Change, Conservation And The Environment of 2018 ― Forbes

This
inspiring and encouraging book demonstrates how nature can shake off the ravages of industrial farming and heal itself. -- John Meadley, founder of Pasture for Life

A thrilling, inspiring and deeply moving story of a wildlife revolution on an ordinary English farm,
Wilding shows us what we have lost and what we could regain if we change our relationship with the countryside. -- Patrick Barkham, author of Badgerlands

Wilding describes the inspirational story of a pioneering rewilding experiment that is changing the way we look at Nature, the countryside and conservation. Beautifully written, it marks the moment when the task at hand can no longer be about slowing down the inexorable decline of wildlife, but to begin the job of restoration. -- Tony Juniper, former Executive Director of Friends of the Earth

Anyone with any interest in land – from a window-box to a National Park – needs to read this book. --
Simon Barnes, author of The Meaning of Birds

So often we read of the countryside in shock and so seldom to we learn of its recovery. This is a pioneering, wonderful book, blooming with humour, practicality, science and lessons learned; a story whose heart beats in the same neck of the woods as Walden. Read
Wilding and restore your belief in the return of nature. -- Nicholas Crane, author of The Making Of The British Landscape

Charming, inspirational and thought-provoking. Beautifully captures the magic and excitement of the Knepp rewilding project. -- Professor Dave Goulson, author of
Bee Quest

Wilding is truly the most magnificent and inspiring book. -- Adam Nicholson, author of The Seabird's Cry

Isabella Tree’s riveting book captures the excitement of an immensely powerful new idea: that to save our beleaguered wildlife, we should move beyond conserving what remains – we should restore what we have lost. Fascinating in its detail and thrilling in its sense of possibilities, this is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of the natural world in the demanding times to come. --
Michael McCarthy, author of The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy

A compelling account of a brave and far sighted venture. At a moment when the future of our countryside hangs in the balance, Isabella Tree helps us understand how we become locked in by our personal experience and perspectives. A riveting, gloriously written read which expands our imagination, and fuels our commitment to reversing the cataclysmic decline of virtually all species, other than our own. --
Helen Browning, Chief Executive of The Soil Association

I read
Wilding at one go. It is both highly engaging and (equally important) very informative about a unique experiment in nature conservation, set in the context of the depressing decline in Britain’s wildlife. Wilding the Knepp Estate is one of the most exciting wildlife conservation projects in the UK, and indeed in Europe. It’s truly wonderful, and it fills me with hope. -- Professor Sir John Lawton, President of The Institution of Environmental Sciences, Chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 2005-11 and author of the 2010 report Making Space for Nature

Brilliantly researched and scripted, this riveting and powerful book will revolutionise farming and nature conservation. --
Matthew Oates, National Specialist on Nature at the National Trust and author of In Pursuit of Butterflies

At a time when we’re hammering the environment, this is
a hopeful book about how the natural world can be reborn if we put the right creatures on our land, step back and let it flourish. -- Simon Reeve

An excellent book. -- Colin Tudge ―
Literary Review

Review

This must be the most inspirational nature book of the year . . . a narrative of conservation, courage, vision and miracles... The story of what happened is thrilling . . . the Knepp Conservation Project is world-famous: a beacon of hope . . . Read this book and marvel. -- Bel Mooney, 'The Year's Best Books on Nature' ― Daily Mail

Particularly timely . . . an excellent primer, and
anyone who is interested in how we share the planet ― what it looks like, what we eat, and what nature can teach us ― should read this book.Sunday Times

A poignant, practical and moving story of how to fix our broken land, this should be conservation's salvation; this should be its future; this is a new hope. --
Chris Packham, presenter of The Really Wild Show

I recently read
Wilding, by Isabella Tree, where she and her husband take their over-farmed, not-profitable estate, and rewild it. Thousands of species return. It will have you in tears. Life exploding again - the reverse of most stories today. Hugely recommended. -- Caitlin Moran (on Twitter)

The remarkable story of an astounding transformation. --
George Monbiot, author of Feral

Wilding shines brilliantly . . . . Isabella Tree writes [. . .] with infectious enthusiasm . . . The project she writes about so winningly . . . is inspirational – and inspiration is needed. ― Evening Standard

A hugely important addition to the literature of what can be done to restore soil and soul . . . Tree writes with grace about a legion of doubts, obstructions and delays. The book contains moments of lyricism and revelation. -- Caspar Henderson ― Guardian

Close to my book of the year.
If there’s anything better, I haven’t read it yet . . . An uplifting story and points towards a different sort of farmed future. -- Marcus Berkmann, 'Best Books for Summer Reading' ― Daily Mail

'Wilding is both a timely and important book . . . Isabella Tree imagines the last migrating turtledove departing Knepp and flying over a Europe “that is being recolonized by beavers, wolves, wolverines, jackals and bears.” And it is in that changing landscape that hope resides.' -- Tim Flannery ― New York Review of Books

Every farmer (and perhaps every conservationist) in Britain needs to go and spend a day at Knepp. The Knepp ‘wilding’ project is a vitally important experiment for working out what we can do to let Nature back into our farmed landscapes . . . This book tells this vital story and deserves to be widely read. --
James Rebanks, author of A Shepherd’s Life

Read
Wilding by Isabella Tree . . . Thrilling. -- India Knight ― The Times

This
honest, thoroughly researched and deeply hopeful book will appeal to everyone - especially farmers - who is concerned about how intensive farming practices are degrading the environment and how to restore nature to ravaged lands. -- Ten Of The Best Books About Climate Change, Conservation And The Environment of 2018 ― Forbes

This
inspiring and encouraging book demonstrates how nature can shake off the ravages of industrial farming and heal itself. -- John Meadley, founder of Pasture for Life

A thrilling, inspiring and deeply moving story of a wildlife revolution on an ordinary English farm,
Wilding shows us what we have lost and what we could regain if we change our relationship with the countryside. -- Patrick Barkham, author of Badgerlands

Wilding describes the inspirational story of a pioneering rewilding experiment that is changing the way we look at Nature, the countryside and conservation. Beautifully written, it marks the moment when the task at hand can no longer be about slowing down the inexorable decline of wildlife, but to begin the job of restoration. -- Tony Juniper, former Executive Director of Friends of the Earth

Anyone with any interest in land – from a window-box to a National Park – needs to read this book. --
Simon Barnes, author of The Meaning of Birds

So often we read of the countryside in shock and so seldom to we learn of its recovery. This is a pioneering, wonderful book, blooming with humour, practicality, science and lessons learned; a story whose heart beats in the same neck of the woods as Walden. Read
Wilding and restore your belief in the return of nature. -- Nicholas Crane, author of The Making Of The British Landscape

Charming, inspirational and thought-provoking. Beautifully captures the magic and excitement of the Knepp rewilding project. -- Professor Dave Goulson, author of
Bee Quest

Wilding is truly the most magnificent and inspiring book. -- Adam Nicholson, author of The Seabird's Cry

Isabella Tree’s riveting book captures the excitement of an immensely powerful new idea: that to save our beleaguered wildlife, we should move beyond conserving what remains – we should restore what we have lost. Fascinating in its detail and thrilling in its sense of possibilities, this is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of the natural world in the demanding times to come. --
Michael McCarthy, author of The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy

A compelling account of a brave and far sighted venture. At a moment when the future of our countryside hangs in the balance, Isabella Tree helps us understand how we become locked in by our personal experience and perspectives. A riveting, gloriously written read which expands our imagination, and fuels our commitment to reversing the cataclysmic decline of virtually all species, other than our own. --
Helen Browning, Chief Executive of The Soil Association

I read
Wilding at one go. It is both highly engaging and (equally important) very informative about a unique experiment in nature conservation, set in the context of the depressing decline in Britain’s wildlife. Wilding the Knepp Estate is one of the most exciting wildlife conservation projects in the UK, and indeed in Europe. It’s truly wonderful, and it fills me with hope. -- Professor Sir John Lawton, President of The Institution of Environmental Sciences, Chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 2005-11 and author of the 2010 report Making Space for Nature

Brilliantly researched and scripted, this riveting and powerful book will revolutionise farming and nature conservation. --
Matthew Oates, National Specialist on Nature at the National Trust and author of In Pursuit of Butterflies

At a time when we’re hammering the environment, this is
a hopeful book about how the natural world can be reborn if we put the right creatures on our land, step back and let it flourish. -- Simon Reeve

An excellent book. -- Colin Tudge ―
Literary Review

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; Main Market edition (21 Mar. 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1509805109
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509805105
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 2.8 x 13 x 19.6 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 3,752 ratings

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Isabella Tree
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Isabella Tree's latest book 'The Book of Wilding', co-authored with her husband, environmentalist Charlie Burrell, is the bible for anyone interested in rewilding at large or small scale, down to a back garden or window box. It follows on from her best-selling book 'Wilding' which tells the story of Knepp, their pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, UK. 'Wilding' won the Richard Jefferies Award for Nature Writing and was one of the Smithsonian's top ten science books for 2018. She is author of four other non-fiction books, and the children's books 'When We Went Wild' and 'When the Storks Came Home'.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
3,752 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book thought-provoking and inspiring. They describe the writing as clear and easy to understand. The book provides amazing details about wildlife and their decline. Readers appreciate the absorbing, down-to-earth narrative and the information content on soil health.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

303 customers mention ‘Thought provoking’303 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and inspiring. They find the story of rewilding an estate in West Sussex fascinating. The practical, hard-nosed ideas are deeply important. Readers describe the book as an important read for anyone involved with the countryside.

"...toughness, help restore habitat, churning it up and creating different environments, allowing scrub to regenerate, allowing trees to regenerate in..." Read more

"...Not only are the practical, hard-nosed ideas of this book deeply important for us, for our countryside and for humanity's future but it is also a..." Read more

"...environment that provides tremendous hope that there is a different way of doing things, which not only works, but can work in an amazingly short..." Read more

"This seemed to me a remarkable and thought-provoking book. I would strongly recommend it. I was, however, left with a few misgivings...." Read more

187 customers mention ‘Readability’169 positive18 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and understand. They appreciate the well-written, informative writing that documents all aspects of the topic clearly and coherently. The prose is engaging and witty, with science presented in an accessible way. Readers mention the author writes from a farming perspective and opens with apt quotes.

"...Because it is written from a farming perspective, by an experienced journalist and author married to the current estate owner, there is a very solid..." Read more

"...But it isn't a dry read - it's a page-turner, and a rare book about the state of the environment that provides tremendous hope that there is a..." Read more

"...regulations are discussed, but overall, this is a super, easy to understand, beautifully written book, deep sometimes, lyrical when appropriate...." Read more

"...Most of the chapters open with a couple of very apt quotes...." Read more

106 customers mention ‘Biodiversity’106 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's focus on wildlife. They find it informative and well-written, with amazing details about wildlife and the shocking decline of biodiversity. The book shows that nature can and will recover if given the right conditions. It provides valuable information about the environment and has been well-researched.

"...at different levels and on plants of different toughness, help restore habitat, churning it up and creating different environments, allowing scrub..." Read more

"...Tree is clearly a serious naturalist who knows her birds, trees and flowers and also delights in learning about all-important hidden key organisms..." Read more

"...The biodiversity of their land improved rapidly, with numbers of existing species increasing, as well as many sightings of rare species not seen in..." Read more

"...and the joy of learning about trees (especially the Oak), our ecological history (and no, it was not all woodland), deer, Turtle Doves, Purple..." Read more

77 customers mention ‘Storytelling’77 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the engaging storytelling. They find the account authentic and down-to-earth, describing the challenges and successes of rewilding 3500 acres. The book is beautifully written in an easy, engaging style.

"...This is not at all a feel-good book, even though many of its stories are joyful and playful, particularly in their observations of animal behaviour...." Read more

"...This is the captivating story of a couple and their staff, family, friends and advisers' sometimes haphazard education in what "the wild" in West..." Read more

"...The story is recounted together with overcoming local opposition, and we are given both the science and the joy of learning about trees..." Read more

"...well written and engaging book that carefully examines the effects of intensive farming but moreover provides an alternative solution that benefits..." Read more

31 customers mention ‘Information content’23 positive8 negative

Customers find the book informative and accessible. They appreciate its clear writing style, references, and detailed research. The book covers a wide range of topics with its own bibliography for each chapter. It makes it clear to readers what governments, consumers, and other stakeholders need to do.

"...There are lots of facts, figures and references, and details of the research they did before undertaking every aspect of the project...." Read more

"...The Thoreau quote has taken on a new resonance. Each chapter has its own bibliography and there is a general bibliography at the end, but what..." Read more

"...There are telling statistics, international and local, on how pesticides and fertiliser destroy earthworm populations on an industrial scale,..." Read more

"...The results have been phenomenal. The approach has been process led, an experiment without specific goals...." Read more

24 customers mention ‘Soil health’24 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's focus on soil health inspiring. They find it explains how farming productivity and soil health are intertwined with wildlife, sustainable farming, animal migration, and the environment. The resulting benefits for soil, plants, and animals, including humans, are appreciated. Readers describe the book as a model for the future of farming and a recipe for mankind's survival.

"...environments, allowing scrub to regenerate, allowing trees to regenerate in clusters of scrub and also keeping the land sufficiently clear to..." Read more

"...changed the way I look at the countryside, landscape, farming and food...." Read more

"...The land is no longer ploughed or fertilised and has gradually developed a new natural vegetation, which has been surprising: not the broadleaf..." Read more

"...many aspects of the Knepp estate: food, finances, flood prevention, soil health & animal welfare amongst numerous others...." Read more

21 customers mention ‘Success’21 positive0 negative

Customers find the book offers practical solutions and examples of success. They appreciate the clear explanation of benefits and the author's ability to tell it as it is. The science and results are amazing, exceeding their expectations.

"...for park restoration, or expensive fencing, and which yielded the most spectacular results as they returned to the wild...." Read more

"...the idea that messy wild land is vastly, by orders of magnitude, more productive, better at holding and purifying water, at sequestering carbon,..." Read more

"...The amazing thing is that the Knepp project proved to be a success on a scale and at a speed that Isabella and her husband did not imagine possible...." Read more

"...The science coupled with the results are amazing and if we don’t wake up soon we are in trouble...." Read more

11 customers mention ‘Rewilding’11 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's examples of rewilding the land. They find it inspiring to rewild their gardens and estates. The book provides valuable insights into trees and their place in the landscape, making it a great resource for anyone with land.

"...Not only has an entire, large estate reverted to nature, but Nightingales, Cuckoos, Turtle Doves are thriving and increasing and in 2018, 2,500..." Read more

"...Amazing revelations about trees and their place in the landscape, very satisfying to discover that all those who have been scoffed at for being tree..." Read more

"...to prove there are other ways to make an interesting and good living off the land, as opposed to exploiting and degrading it...." Read more

"...detail how they changed their farm at Knepp Estate to a natural, re-wilded park, and some of the things they learned and have achieved...." Read more

Educational without being preachy, accessible without being simplistic. A joy to read.
5 out of 5 stars
Educational without being preachy, accessible without being simplistic. A joy to read.
This is one of those annoying books that not only does everyone who's read it tell you that: "You must read this", it's also one of those books that (they'll tell you) "Should absolutely be on the national curriculum". Annoying.Suffice to say, I would completely agree with those views, this is a really significant book.It's hard to summarise the whole of the revelations and lessons learned from allowing marginal farm land to revert to it's natural type (with the assistance of some natural grazers, the 'mouths in the landscape'), but there are many "I didn't know that/that's fascinating" moments. And warn whoever's near you while you're reading it - you'll probably interrupt them several times with many natural history based gems.This is a wise, thoughtful, philosophical book but also very practical, non-nonsense and very entertaining. Educational without being preachy, accessible without being simplistic. Fundamentally this is a joy to read.In this age when we're facing a host of climate related problems - I hope many more people read and take on board the lessons from Wilding, not least our leaders and policy makers.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 August 2019
    Nature writing is all the rage but much of it is written by authors who are more visitors than resident, and few nature books are written by farmers, least of all ones who after many generations of farming, decided for hard financial reasons to give up mainstream arable and herd farming and shift strategy radically.

    Because it is written from a farming perspective, by an experienced journalist and author married to the current estate owner, there is a very solid practical turn to every chapter of this book. Most interesting is the description of the parts of the Knepp Estate that did not receive any government funding for park restoration, or expensive fencing, and which yielded the most spectacular results as they returned to the wild.

    This is no flaky rich man’s adventure. Charlie Burrell, Isabella Tree’s husband, got out of dairy farming just in time before yet another crash in milk quota values. They escaped from a loss-making business and moved to something with lower overheads and arguably less subsidy. They are guided by an advisory board of UK and international, public sector and independent, conservationists and regulators. They have drawn on experience with low cost rewilding with grazing animals in other parts of Europe, particularly in densely populated parts of the Netherlands.

    I particularly like Tree’s account of how grazing animals, grazing at different levels and on plants of different toughness, help restore habitat, churning it up and creating different environments, allowing scrub to regenerate, allowing trees to regenerate in clusters of scrub and also keeping the land sufficiently clear to prevent it becoming entire a wooded canopy. They have not yet managed to reintroduce European bison, that have been used successfully near Haarlem in the Netherlands to keep dune land open. There is a glorious image of a bison rolling over on the sandy soil and giving itself a good rub down, creating a sandy scrape for new plants. They have to make do with Tamworth pigs instead.

    I also like her account of how many local residents objected to the messy countryside they created – they did not see it as proper countryside because it was not manicured, and there were many complaints about ragwort, even though they prevented ragwort from travelling to neighbours’ fields, and even though it is a very effective source of food for pollinators. Presumably the locals are getting used to this now tourists and conservationists are flocking in to see a succession of phenomena including clouds of rare butterflies like purple emperors, migrations of painted ladies, breeding nightingales and many pairs of elusive turtle doves.

    This is not at all a feel-good book, even though many of its stories are joyful and playful, particularly in their observations of animal behaviour. It makes uncomfortable reading for those who think they know how to manage land.

    There are criticisms of the grant systems and SSSI designations that attempt to keep land in one particular category and manage it for one particular purpose and species – when better results may be achieved through abandonment of land, unpredictable, but producing unexpectedly fruitful results for expanding insect and bird populations.

    There are telling statistics, international and local, on how pesticides and fertiliser destroy earthworm populations on an industrial scale, destroying the health of the land – even if alongside that there is very positive evidence for how rapidly those populations can expand again, with suggestions for long cycle fallow periods for worn out agricultural land before it is brought back into cultivation again.

    Tree points to the way the fungal mycorrhizae use carbon extracted from the roots of plants to produce a sticky glycoprotein called glomalin which helps plants extract goodness from the soil, but which also has a massive impact in carbon sequestration. So by soil improvement, we could sequester much greater quantities of carbon. The secret is to increase organic matter in the soil. “Improving the structure of our soils and returning unproductive agricultural land to permanent pasture could be a crucial weapon in the battle against rising levels of CO2. According to the Royal Society, carbon capture by the world’s farmlands, if they were better managed, could total as much as 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – more than the annual carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere.”

    One particular theme of her book is that there is a damaging assumption that many species are naturally woodland birds or insects, when in reality they may have retreated to woodland because mixed scrub and grassland has increasingly been managed out of existence. Her argument is that the ancestors of our cows and horses always grazed this land, it was never completely forested, and the Mesolithic humans that wandered in from the continent found an environment that was more like savannah than dense wood. She argues that many species also like adjacent different habitats and land that is in transition, gradually becoming wooded, gradually being eaten back, sometimes flooded, sometimes not.

    She also points to the way natural river beds help prevent soil erosion and store flood water, and would clearly like to be able to reintroduce beavers to allow them to dam and retain water in their wilder parts. She was present when Devon’s rewilded beavers were allowed to be returned to the River Otter after being checked out and declared disease free – a maverick rewilding made official.

    The burgeoning of different species, particularly in the parts of the estate that were left experimentally and cheaply to go their own way, is testament to their approach. A study of the Knepp estate “found 34 nightingale territories on Knepp. From having no nightingales at all, we were now, after just nine years, hosting between 0.5 and 0.9 per cent of the UK population…..”

    Knepp is now holding safaris on its estate – I quite feel like going on one!
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 August 2020
    "Must read" is hackneyed, so I choose it carefully in this case. I bought this on Kindle and have ordered the hardback so I can have it on my shelves and remember to re-read it for years to come. Not only are the practical, hard-nosed ideas of this book deeply important for us, for our countryside and for humanity's future but it is also a delightful read.

    The concept of rewilding is not new but has too often been presented as earnest, grim-faced, anti-farmer doctrine. Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell came to rewilding their 1500 hectare Knepp Castle estate from an entrepreneurial farming mentality developed over generations. They looked at their landscape and its wildlife, starting with the splendid old oak trees, with affection and concern. Tree is candid that if their intensive agricultural strategy of the 1990s been financially successful - it brought them close to bankruptcy - they would not have gone down the rewilding route.

    This is the captivating story of a couple and their staff, family, friends and advisers' sometimes haphazard education in what "the wild" in West Sussex really is and how to gently coax the land back to that state. Isabella Tree is completely convincing in her case that the primordial British landscape was open woodland, scrub and pasture, not closed canopy forest as orthodoxy has insisted for decades or even centuries. Before man arrived, the countryside was grazed by large wild fauna such as deer, elk, bison and aurochs (an extinct type of ox). So, Charlie and Isabella carefully introduced exmoor ponies and longhorn cattle to prevent total reforestation and allow scrub to proliferate; they are determined to add beavers, a critical key landscape species, very soon too.

    The story of how they felt their way, step by step, carefully listening to some extraordinary experts from around the corner and around the world, is profoundly inspiring. Tree is clearly a serious naturalist who knows her birds, trees and flowers and also delights in learning about all-important hidden key organisms such as earthworms and fungi. There is a lot of evidence and some astonishing statistics to convince you of the the idea that messy wild land is vastly, by orders of magnitude, more productive, better at holding and purifying water, at sequestering carbon, than the traditional, romantic vistas of rolling sheep-grazed hills or endless wide fields of barley and wheat. It can also be very beautiful, not to forget hugely more species diverse.

    There are some flaws. It is true that the aristocratic Isabella and her baronet husband, Sir Charles Burrell, greatly benefit from their privileged access to and influence in the establishment; a political asset unavailable to most ordinary farmers. There is also the looming problem, mentioned in passing by Tree, of a lack of large predators to control grazing fauna and close the ecological cycle. However, these flaws do not detract from the courage and inspirational value of the Knepp project.

    The book is a great read, not earnest evangelism. It is a wonderful, joyful story of personal growth and discovery. If you have any land, she makes you want to go out there, today, and do something about it.

    Isabella Tree has completely changed the way I look at the countryside, landscape, farming and food. I believe this book will be as important to our ecological thinking as Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" was nearly forty years before.
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • EForsey
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great read!
    Reviewed in Canada on 18 August 2023
    A very informative book.
  • Angela Byrskog
    5.0 out of 5 stars Book
    Reviewed in Sweden on 15 July 2023
    Everything price condition and all
  • Lee Dubai
    4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
    Reviewed in the United Arab Emirates on 4 October 2022
    Wish we may all give our land over to restore nature.
  • Jini Patel
    5.0 out of 5 stars BEST Book EVER!!
    Reviewed in the United States on 18 March 2019
    Ms. Tree educates brilliantly through riveting storytelling. And she gives enough detail that you can take the concepts and actually apply them. I kept track throughout the book (writing in the margins) whenever she talked about the density of each keystone species per acre that would be self-sustaining. For example, the local wild ponies need 8 acres per horse. But Bison need 21 acres each. There's SO much totally cool, fascinating stuff in this book that I can't even begin to cover it all. Suffice it to say I tell everyone about this book - usually sharing a story or two. And I've already gifted 3 copies. Just fascinating and so well-written!
  • Carlo Contesso
    5.0 out of 5 stars splendido
    Reviewed in Italy on 4 January 2020
    uno splendido libro, non sola una bella storia che ispira e fa sperare, ma una testo ben documentato, interessante anche per gli addetti ai lavori, non solo agli appassionati.