To be read - 2

    "A hugely important addition to the literature of what can be done to restore soil and soul," says the Guardian of Isabella Tree's Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm, while Adam Nicolson's verdict is "... truly the most magnificent and inspiring book."

    "Forced to accept that intensive farming of the heavy clay soils of their farm at Knepp in West Sussex was driving it close to bankruptcy, in 2000 Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell took a spectacular leap of faith and handed their 3,500 acres back to nature. With minimal human intervention, and with herds of free-roaming animals stimulating new habitats, their land is now heaving with life. Rare species such as turtle doves, peregrine falcons and purple emperor butterflies are now breeding at Knepp and biodiversity has rocketed.

    The Knepp project has become a leading light for conservation in the UK, demonstrating how letting nature take the driving seat can restore both the land and its wildlife in a dramatically short space of time, reversing the cataclysmic declines that have affected most species elsewhere in Britain over the past five decades. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of Britain's rural ecology, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope."

    The book was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize (awarded a couple of days ago to Robert Macfarlane's Underland).

Comments

[Fran H-B]

This book certainly gives hope. I heard Isabella Tree speak at the Wealden Literary Festival along with a member of the NFU and the estate manager of Holkam, Norfolk. It was an interesting conversation. Knepp runs alongside a busy A road, and is close to Gatwick airport yet the increase in threatened species such as turtle doves, nightingales and purple emperor butterflies is nothing short of a miracle.

[Toffeeapple]

If only more farmers were able to do the same or similar thing. I imagine that money was tight to start with.

[LizF]

I really enjoyed this - a real inspirational read.