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Our Oaken Bones: Reviving a Family, a Farm and Britain’s Ancient Rainforests
An enormously moving and inspiring story about war, trauma, nature and rebirth, written with infectious passion and unsparing honesty. I loved it. - DOMINIC SANDBROOK
Scholarly, wise, funny, charming, terrifying and thrilling... I adored it all, every page. - JOANNA LUMLEY
A comfort and an inspiration - CHLOE DALTON, author of Raising Hare
This is a lovely book - wise, brave, thoughtful, painfully intimate - but with a remarkable spiritual and environmental vision. - RORY STEWART
An extraordinarily courageous, urgent and powerful book. - ISABELLA TREE
Deeply compelling... emotional, informative, pleasurable. I believe that this is an important work with planet-sized dreams and ambitions. Perhaps the greatest philosophy or teachable lesson that came to me off the page is that dominion comes with responsibility. - RUSSELL CROWE
I love this book. - RICK STEIN
Powerfully enchanting, written with verve and imbued with hope. - GUY SHRUBSOLE
I lie on the rock to let my limbs dry after my immersion in the river. My bones warm. I have no towel but the moss is grateful for the additional moisture that I bring as the water runs off me and into its spongy web of roots and branches. I look up through the canopy and time freezes as the oak leaves drift gently backwards and forwards, dappling the light as it falls onto my body.
I am home.
Reeling from the pain of devastating miscarriages and suffering from PTSD after military adventures in Afghanistan, Merlin and his wife Lizzie decide to leave the bustle of London and return to Merlin’s childhood home, a Cornish hill farm called Cabilla in the heart of Bodmin Moor.
There, they are met by unexpected a farm slipping ever further into debt, the discovery that the overgrazed and damaged woods running throughout the valley are in fact one of the UK’s last remaining fragments of Atlantic temperate rainforest, and the sudden and near catastrophic strickening by Covid of Merlin’s father, the explorer Robin. As they fall more in love with the rainforest that Merlin had adventured in as a child, so begins a fight to save not only themselves and their farm, but also one of the world’s most endangered habitats.
Our Oaken Bones is an honest and intimate true story about renewal, the astonishing healing power of nature, and our duty to heal it in return.
For fans of The Salt Path and The Lost Rainforests of Britain.
Scholarly, wise, funny, charming, terrifying and thrilling... I adored it all, every page. - JOANNA LUMLEY
A comfort and an inspiration - CHLOE DALTON, author of Raising Hare
This is a lovely book - wise, brave, thoughtful, painfully intimate - but with a remarkable spiritual and environmental vision. - RORY STEWART
An extraordinarily courageous, urgent and powerful book. - ISABELLA TREE
Deeply compelling... emotional, informative, pleasurable. I believe that this is an important work with planet-sized dreams and ambitions. Perhaps the greatest philosophy or teachable lesson that came to me off the page is that dominion comes with responsibility. - RUSSELL CROWE
I love this book. - RICK STEIN
Powerfully enchanting, written with verve and imbued with hope. - GUY SHRUBSOLE
I lie on the rock to let my limbs dry after my immersion in the river. My bones warm. I have no towel but the moss is grateful for the additional moisture that I bring as the water runs off me and into its spongy web of roots and branches. I look up through the canopy and time freezes as the oak leaves drift gently backwards and forwards, dappling the light as it falls onto my body.
I am home.
Reeling from the pain of devastating miscarriages and suffering from PTSD after military adventures in Afghanistan, Merlin and his wife Lizzie decide to leave the bustle of London and return to Merlin’s childhood home, a Cornish hill farm called Cabilla in the heart of Bodmin Moor.
There, they are met by unexpected a farm slipping ever further into debt, the discovery that the overgrazed and damaged woods running throughout the valley are in fact one of the UK’s last remaining fragments of Atlantic temperate rainforest, and the sudden and near catastrophic strickening by Covid of Merlin’s father, the explorer Robin. As they fall more in love with the rainforest that Merlin had adventured in as a child, so begins a fight to save not only themselves and their farm, but also one of the world’s most endangered habitats.
Our Oaken Bones is an honest and intimate true story about renewal, the astonishing healing power of nature, and our duty to heal it in return.
For fans of The Salt Path and The Lost Rainforests of Britain.
286 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 20, 2025
35 people are currently reading
755 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 19, 2025
Got mixed feelings about this. It's a slightly muddled mix of memoir and rainforest re-wilding manifesto, so you have details of his family struggles next to his own ideas about how best to integrate farming with forest recovery.
He's certainly passionate about the subject and clearly has learned a lot about the environment from his own experiences and those around him, but he very much presents his vision as the only option which includes slightly controversial things like encouraging hunting (which he does make a solid case for), also noted that his idyllic vision of the future included smoking chimneys, so much for renewable energy...
Personally, it was hard to shake the idea that the whole thing is very self-serving and an attempt to leave a legacy. Whilst he writes well and sometimes very sensitively (the miscarriage section in particular), there is a slight sneering public schoolboy tone that comes out from time to time that I didn't enjoy. I can't speak to his intentions but it seems like he's very much trying to live up to his father (a professional explorer) - he started a charity so I want to! He wrote some books so I want to! His detachment from the real world comes across a couple of times as well, like when he states that he'd never heard of 'Grand Designs' and initially reckoned he could renovate a dilapidated barn into a state of the art wellness centre for £30k (which to be fair he does acknowledge as ludicrous).
Ultimately he's well meaning and it's a good thing people like him are trying to make the world a better place, i'm just not 100% this is definitely the right approach (would be interested to read a more scientifically grounded response to some of his proposals). Worth a read though.
He's certainly passionate about the subject and clearly has learned a lot about the environment from his own experiences and those around him, but he very much presents his vision as the only option which includes slightly controversial things like encouraging hunting (which he does make a solid case for), also noted that his idyllic vision of the future included smoking chimneys, so much for renewable energy...
Personally, it was hard to shake the idea that the whole thing is very self-serving and an attempt to leave a legacy. Whilst he writes well and sometimes very sensitively (the miscarriage section in particular), there is a slight sneering public schoolboy tone that comes out from time to time that I didn't enjoy. I can't speak to his intentions but it seems like he's very much trying to live up to his father (a professional explorer) - he started a charity so I want to! He wrote some books so I want to! His detachment from the real world comes across a couple of times as well, like when he states that he'd never heard of 'Grand Designs' and initially reckoned he could renovate a dilapidated barn into a state of the art wellness centre for £30k (which to be fair he does acknowledge as ludicrous).
Ultimately he's well meaning and it's a good thing people like him are trying to make the world a better place, i'm just not 100% this is definitely the right approach (would be interested to read a more scientifically grounded response to some of his proposals). Worth a read though.
February 16, 2025
A wonderful, and entirely essential, conversation starter of a book
There’s a real magic within the pages of this book, and it’s all inspired by one of the greatest assets that we have: our ancient forests. It is a gentle but sincere cry, a call to arms, a lucid appeal of how positive change can be made to protect our sacred landscape. But it’s also much more than that.
At the heart of Our Oaken Bones is a story of family and healing, with nature as therapy and its Cornish temperate rainforest as a guide, a teacher and a trusted friend. And there is a farm, a business, trying to keep up with the challenges that farmers face today more than ever. There is a wife and husband with a dream of raising a family, and a vision for a future in which they hope their children might grow – a vision that stretches 1,000 years into the future.
Using the lessons from history that we have, at times, had to endure, we see a country stripping itself of its natural riches while fighting wars and invasion. The impact of industrial and population growth and their impact upon the countryside – a place of myth and legend, a safe place and healing ground, devastated. But most importantly we learn how simple change can be; the approaches that we can make to save this essential part of our natural world and bring back these wild places that we surely all love – and, as we are reminded, we all come from; or even still belong.
Hanbury-Tenison’s writing is so good, and the narration of his story so tender, inspirational and moving — as well as, by turns, either terrifying or humorous — I don’t just recommend this book, I implore you to read it. With a cast of unforgettable real-life characters — from Gloria the pig, to Merlin’s father Robin, affectionately referred to as “the old explorer” — I can’t imagine I will ever stop thinking about it. Destined to be a favourite book of this year.
There’s a real magic within the pages of this book, and it’s all inspired by one of the greatest assets that we have: our ancient forests. It is a gentle but sincere cry, a call to arms, a lucid appeal of how positive change can be made to protect our sacred landscape. But it’s also much more than that.
At the heart of Our Oaken Bones is a story of family and healing, with nature as therapy and its Cornish temperate rainforest as a guide, a teacher and a trusted friend. And there is a farm, a business, trying to keep up with the challenges that farmers face today more than ever. There is a wife and husband with a dream of raising a family, and a vision for a future in which they hope their children might grow – a vision that stretches 1,000 years into the future.
Using the lessons from history that we have, at times, had to endure, we see a country stripping itself of its natural riches while fighting wars and invasion. The impact of industrial and population growth and their impact upon the countryside – a place of myth and legend, a safe place and healing ground, devastated. But most importantly we learn how simple change can be; the approaches that we can make to save this essential part of our natural world and bring back these wild places that we surely all love – and, as we are reminded, we all come from; or even still belong.
Hanbury-Tenison’s writing is so good, and the narration of his story so tender, inspirational and moving — as well as, by turns, either terrifying or humorous — I don’t just recommend this book, I implore you to read it. With a cast of unforgettable real-life characters — from Gloria the pig, to Merlin’s father Robin, affectionately referred to as “the old explorer” — I can’t imagine I will ever stop thinking about it. Destined to be a favourite book of this year.
November 19, 2025
Part memoir, part nature/conservation writing, and ode to the Atlantic Temperate Rainforests in the UK. A manifesto for their management and stewardship.
August 4, 2025
Great book, so much to take from it. It’s really hopeful to know how many individuals are looking after the UK’s country side
August 11, 2025
I don't know if you will see this Merlin, but I just wanted to say a massive thank you for what you have done and what you and your family are continuing to do.
February 17, 2025
Merlin's family have experienced adventure, war, trauma and yet, against the encroaching threat of environmental crisis, his Cornish temperature rainforest home provides solace and hope for a better future.
Merlin's father spent years exploring overseas, crossing continents. And yet, the challenge of caring for their farm on the edge of Bodmin Moor with the challenges of dwindling subsidies, changing markets and catastrophies like foot and mouth disease, the viability of a farming future looked impossible.
Merlin returned from tour in Afghanistan to a corporate life in London. The pressure broke through and the PTSD episodes that followed staggered him. His wife suffered miscarriages and their individual and shared suffering became impossible to process anywhere other than under the canopy of the rainforest oaks. Process and heal they did.
This haven became something they felt a duty and need to share with veterans or the careworn in need of the same transformative effect.
This book follows Merlin and his family's experiences of covid, the farming industry, mental and physical healing beyond belief, the lessons of his military experience, the woodland therapy business they built, considerations of wildlife management and the hopeful result: a long term vision for not just their own pocket of temperate rainforest, but for this whole island.
This is great read for fans of The Lost Rainforests of Britain and Wild Fell.
Merlin's father spent years exploring overseas, crossing continents. And yet, the challenge of caring for their farm on the edge of Bodmin Moor with the challenges of dwindling subsidies, changing markets and catastrophies like foot and mouth disease, the viability of a farming future looked impossible.
Merlin returned from tour in Afghanistan to a corporate life in London. The pressure broke through and the PTSD episodes that followed staggered him. His wife suffered miscarriages and their individual and shared suffering became impossible to process anywhere other than under the canopy of the rainforest oaks. Process and heal they did.
This haven became something they felt a duty and need to share with veterans or the careworn in need of the same transformative effect.
This book follows Merlin and his family's experiences of covid, the farming industry, mental and physical healing beyond belief, the lessons of his military experience, the woodland therapy business they built, considerations of wildlife management and the hopeful result: a long term vision for not just their own pocket of temperate rainforest, but for this whole island.
This is great read for fans of The Lost Rainforests of Britain and Wild Fell.
March 14, 2025
Thank you to Witness Books and Penguin Random House for the advanced reading copy.
Struggling with PTSD from his time serving in Iraq and suffering loss in their personal lives, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife Lizzie head back to the family farm Cabilla in Cornwall for some much needed solace from the ancient rainforest.
The healing power of being in this ancient woodland is something they feel should be shared so instead of continuing with more traditional farming, they establish The Thousand Year Project, a charitable organisation aiming to re-establish vast tranches of woodland throughout the UK.
Not only is this a beautifully written memoir that is so touching and gentle, it's a rally cry to farmers, government and us all to wake up and realise the potential we can release for everyone's benefit by encouraging farmers to consider that they are custodians of land and not just providers of food.
I would love to read the memoirs of his intrepid father, referred to as 'the old explorer' and I absolutely loved the description of the old oak tree at the end of the book, a provider of life to so many other species.
I can't recommend Our Oaken Bones highly enough and if you enjoy the writing of Guy Shrubsole and Robert Macfarlane you will totally love this.
Struggling with PTSD from his time serving in Iraq and suffering loss in their personal lives, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife Lizzie head back to the family farm Cabilla in Cornwall for some much needed solace from the ancient rainforest.
The healing power of being in this ancient woodland is something they feel should be shared so instead of continuing with more traditional farming, they establish The Thousand Year Project, a charitable organisation aiming to re-establish vast tranches of woodland throughout the UK.
Not only is this a beautifully written memoir that is so touching and gentle, it's a rally cry to farmers, government and us all to wake up and realise the potential we can release for everyone's benefit by encouraging farmers to consider that they are custodians of land and not just providers of food.
I would love to read the memoirs of his intrepid father, referred to as 'the old explorer' and I absolutely loved the description of the old oak tree at the end of the book, a provider of life to so many other species.
I can't recommend Our Oaken Bones highly enough and if you enjoy the writing of Guy Shrubsole and Robert Macfarlane you will totally love this.
April 21, 2025
I loved this book. Merlin’s words are wise, vulnerable, warm, urgent, funny and intelligent. He paints incredible pictures with his writing and plants seeds of ideas that are humble yet lay the foundations for incredible change. I loved it and will urge all my book loving friends and beyond to read it. 💚
June 8, 2025
A beautiful, inspiring and critical read. If you didn’t know that we have rare and threatened temperate rainforest in Britain - or even if you did - this book is an eye-opening read and an impassioned call for change to better nurture, protect and restore these special landscapes.
This is the story of Merlin, the current custodian of the 300 acre Cabilla Farm, of which around 100 acres is pristine, ancient temperate rainforest. Merlin’s father bought Cabilla in the 1960’s, and the book tells the story of the farm and farming in Cornwall, as they have weathered the challenges of a changing industry, policy landscape and climate. It is also the story of the temperate rainforest, and the inspiring work Merlin and his family have undertaken to restore and protect the remarkable forest that is in their care.
But it’s really a story about healing. Merlin, a war veteran suffering PTSD, his wife Lizzie learning to live with the loss of miscarriages, and his father Robin recuperating after contracting COVID-19, have all experienced firsthand the healing power of nature, and how connecting with nature - and specifically these ancient landscapes - builds strength and acts as a balm for a troubled soul.
For many of us the power of nature to nurture and heal is obvious. Something we’ve always known, even if only on an instinctive level, deep in our bones. For some of us, that special connection drives us to want to act in return, to protect nature from the destructive power of humans.
That certainly seems to be the case for Merlin and his family. Theirs is a story of connection, healing, care and good stewardship. As well as being a deeply personal account of their lives, trauma and recovery, it’s also a story about connection: to the land, to community, to the forest. And it’s a call to arms, a clear account of the need for change to respond to our changing context, landscape and climate, and the action we now need to take to protect and restore our relationship with land and nature. If we can’t do that, these special places and the incredible contributions they make to keeping our planet healthy and thriving, will be lost to us forever.
Merlin writes with passion and understanding, and this book will transport you to the Celtic rainforest - as Merlin describes it, a liminal place between worlds, a place of dreaming, vibrant and bursting with life.
This is the story of Merlin, the current custodian of the 300 acre Cabilla Farm, of which around 100 acres is pristine, ancient temperate rainforest. Merlin’s father bought Cabilla in the 1960’s, and the book tells the story of the farm and farming in Cornwall, as they have weathered the challenges of a changing industry, policy landscape and climate. It is also the story of the temperate rainforest, and the inspiring work Merlin and his family have undertaken to restore and protect the remarkable forest that is in their care.
But it’s really a story about healing. Merlin, a war veteran suffering PTSD, his wife Lizzie learning to live with the loss of miscarriages, and his father Robin recuperating after contracting COVID-19, have all experienced firsthand the healing power of nature, and how connecting with nature - and specifically these ancient landscapes - builds strength and acts as a balm for a troubled soul.
For many of us the power of nature to nurture and heal is obvious. Something we’ve always known, even if only on an instinctive level, deep in our bones. For some of us, that special connection drives us to want to act in return, to protect nature from the destructive power of humans.
That certainly seems to be the case for Merlin and his family. Theirs is a story of connection, healing, care and good stewardship. As well as being a deeply personal account of their lives, trauma and recovery, it’s also a story about connection: to the land, to community, to the forest. And it’s a call to arms, a clear account of the need for change to respond to our changing context, landscape and climate, and the action we now need to take to protect and restore our relationship with land and nature. If we can’t do that, these special places and the incredible contributions they make to keeping our planet healthy and thriving, will be lost to us forever.
Merlin writes with passion and understanding, and this book will transport you to the Celtic rainforest - as Merlin describes it, a liminal place between worlds, a place of dreaming, vibrant and bursting with life.
October 1, 2025
Collect Sessile Oak acorns. Grow and raise them. Help expand our rainforests.
My childhood in South London amidst oaks of the once Great North Wood meant I slipped into this book looking for the balm that ancient woods, or simply beautiful descriptions of them, can bring. I was not disappointed. Even better I was transported to the dripping wetness of an ancient temperate rainforest in Cornwall which reminded me of one I love in the Hebrides. Lichens, damp moss, twisted trunks and branches and the numerous small invertebrates living therein may not seem like a panacea... but they can be and Merlin Hanbury Tenison witnesses their benefits to mental wellbeing. His book is an honest account of problems overcome by a closeness to nature plus determination to save his own precious rainforest for posterity. His One Thousand Year Trust was established to restore temperate rainforest landscapes in Cornwall and to try to reconnect precious Sessile Oak woods that remain. It's an ambitious project but mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow and that is just the point. Nothing is impossible. And acorns can be planted and raised by almost anyone.
Our Oaken Bones is an uplifting book of triumph over adversity, a love of family and home, a love of nature, and a passionate determination to preserve something very, very precious, for us all.
The Thousand Year Trust website became my go to for further information when I finished the book and wanted more.
Inspired by this book I have collected Sessile Oak acorns from the Hebrides to plant and raise. An investment for the future.
My childhood in South London amidst oaks of the once Great North Wood meant I slipped into this book looking for the balm that ancient woods, or simply beautiful descriptions of them, can bring. I was not disappointed. Even better I was transported to the dripping wetness of an ancient temperate rainforest in Cornwall which reminded me of one I love in the Hebrides. Lichens, damp moss, twisted trunks and branches and the numerous small invertebrates living therein may not seem like a panacea... but they can be and Merlin Hanbury Tenison witnesses their benefits to mental wellbeing. His book is an honest account of problems overcome by a closeness to nature plus determination to save his own precious rainforest for posterity. His One Thousand Year Trust was established to restore temperate rainforest landscapes in Cornwall and to try to reconnect precious Sessile Oak woods that remain. It's an ambitious project but mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow and that is just the point. Nothing is impossible. And acorns can be planted and raised by almost anyone.
Our Oaken Bones is an uplifting book of triumph over adversity, a love of family and home, a love of nature, and a passionate determination to preserve something very, very precious, for us all.
The Thousand Year Trust website became my go to for further information when I finished the book and wanted more.
Inspired by this book I have collected Sessile Oak acorns from the Hebrides to plant and raise. An investment for the future.
March 27, 2025
A completely absorbing book. I have rarely read a book in which I found so much of interest.
It provides a fascinating insight into the workings of nature and how they affect us all - and have been affecting us for thousands of years.
It must have required a huge amount of research, and although this kind of book tends to be just a litany of information the facts, the author makes the narrative full of stories.
Beautifully written, it is something of a page-turner, and you get carried along by the story.
It is also a touching tale of the author's life and family and the endless obstacles he has had to overcome to get his project off the ground
Inspiring stuff.
It provides a fascinating insight into the workings of nature and how they affect us all - and have been affecting us for thousands of years.
It must have required a huge amount of research, and although this kind of book tends to be just a litany of information the facts, the author makes the narrative full of stories.
Beautifully written, it is something of a page-turner, and you get carried along by the story.
It is also a touching tale of the author's life and family and the endless obstacles he has had to overcome to get his project off the ground
Inspiring stuff.
January 7, 2026
This is an astonishing book.
I read late into the small hours, following the author’s vision .
Knowing the area of Bodmin Moor he writes of as somewhere I have wanted to walk for a long time, made the resting all the more relevant.
Do go and read about the Thousand Year Trust that Merlin & Lizzie founded.
It’s remarkable and deserves our support.
But buy this book, buy one for your local library too.
It’s a Vision worth sharing .
I read late into the small hours, following the author’s vision .
Knowing the area of Bodmin Moor he writes of as somewhere I have wanted to walk for a long time, made the resting all the more relevant.
Do go and read about the Thousand Year Trust that Merlin & Lizzie founded.
It’s remarkable and deserves our support.
But buy this book, buy one for your local library too.
It’s a Vision worth sharing .
July 19, 2025
By far the most beautiful non-fiction book I have ever read. A true manifesto for rainforest restoration with beautiful real-life stories to accompany it and really bring the potential to life. I will be thinking about this book for a very long time, sharing it with friends and family and hope to visit Cabilla in person one day.
August 9, 2025
A wonderful book - if you like the writing of James Rebanks, Ben Goldsmith, or Robert Macfarlane, you'll love this. The prose is as rich as the rainforest protagonist of this book, the vocabulary wildly but gently guiding you through the restorative landscape. A powerful story of the healing power of nature and how to fix our broken relationship with our landscape.
October 13, 2025
Interesting, but a but meh
Book about some guy who wants to expand Britain's temperate rainforest. Some interesting stories and he is clearly passionate about his farm and britiains ecological recovery... but I found much of it quite dull and repetitive... especially the second half. The best bits were about his dad and when he was doing less of the lecturing x
Book about some guy who wants to expand Britain's temperate rainforest. Some interesting stories and he is clearly passionate about his farm and britiains ecological recovery... but I found much of it quite dull and repetitive... especially the second half. The best bits were about his dad and when he was doing less of the lecturing x
January 3, 2026
I really enjoyed this book - another farmer turned writer similar to James Rebanks. I thought it would be a book I'd pick up inbetween others but I read it straight through as it was so interesting to learn about the terrible loss of our rainforests, why they are so important and his vision for the future. Interwoven with personal stories it is a lovely book.
July 7, 2025
Enjoyable
Interesting book about how nature can restore us to full health. Sets out a good argument for restoring our rain forest but falls down a little in explaining how it would be paid for
Interesting book about how nature can restore us to full health. Sets out a good argument for restoring our rain forest but falls down a little in explaining how it would be paid for
September 25, 2025
Magnificent writing and an inspirational vision for the future, both near and far. A hugely important read, particularly for anyone who thinks the UK’s natural state is grazed hills and treeless moors. I feel lucky to know the people and places he speaks of and must visit Cabilla!
April 7, 2025
This book has had a marked effect on me.
May 11, 2025
Loved this book and the things I learnt from it
June 21, 2025
Listened to on audible
September 3, 2025
Beautiful and thought-provoking. Enjoyed this non-fiction book more than I thought
September 13, 2025
Lovely read from start to finish. captivating and well written with such an important message. A book that everyone should read.
January 9, 2026
I really enjoyed the audio version of this book (read by the author). I’d probably give it a 3.5 stars. It was very entertaining and peeked my interest throughout.
December 29, 2025
I listened to this book and it was superb. It’s a mix of a personal journey and call to action to save our temperate rain forests. It had me thinking about nature in a different and more powerful way - thinking of time in terms of an oak trees life and not ours. Highly recommend.
June 19, 2025
Incredibly moving in its optimism. Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, facing the ecological destruction of our planet, nevertheless refuses to stop trying. He approaches conservation with rigor and a great deal of imagination: reading widely, talking to environmentalists from all over the world (this includes the indigenous of the Amazon river basin), re-introducing native species (like the beaver) into his rainforest habitat.
My favorite chapter was the second to the last: "Turning Our Swords Into Sanctuaries." It is passionate, but bolstered with cold, hard facts:
"Arteries move around muscles and organs just as our rivers curl past hills and woodland. Instead of disgorging into a centralised heart, our rivers end at the coastline. Perhaps it's more similar to a decentralised organism that sits within a nourishing medium rather than one depending on a central beating muscle for life. These smaller veins, especially in our western reaches, represent the fall from high ground to the lusher, greener farmland of the lower lying areas. These are the corridors that would once have connected all the rainforests of the UK."
My favorite chapter was the second to the last: "Turning Our Swords Into Sanctuaries." It is passionate, but bolstered with cold, hard facts:
"Arteries move around muscles and organs just as our rivers curl past hills and woodland. Instead of disgorging into a centralised heart, our rivers end at the coastline. Perhaps it's more similar to a decentralised organism that sits within a nourishing medium rather than one depending on a central beating muscle for life. These smaller veins, especially in our western reaches, represent the fall from high ground to the lusher, greener farmland of the lower lying areas. These are the corridors that would once have connected all the rainforests of the UK."
August 10, 2025
Part memoir and part manifesto, weaving together themes such as rewilding and the healing power of nature for everything from PTSD to grief/bereavement to COVID, this was life-affirming and provided a little sliver of optimism regarding the climate crisis and destruction of the natural world. (As an antidote to all that anxiety, I loved that each chapter of the audiobook began and ended with recordings made in the rainforests of Cabilla, with birdsong and the sound of the wind in the trees.)
Let's hope this book finds its way into the hands of our policy-makers.
Let's hope this book finds its way into the hands of our policy-makers.
November 22, 2025
I will keep it simple : the book of the year for me despite it is only May. More books like this ought to be created. More initiatives to preserve old woodlands should be undertaken. But above all : more people should read this book and allow them to be inspired. Our world need more hope inspiring stories and this one can stand among the best of them.
Well written even though there are many descriptions that could have ended up making the story pace slacking off and losing its momentum. For me the description of the surrounding forest and add on data on forests makes this book all the more interesting
Well written even though there are many descriptions that could have ended up making the story pace slacking off and losing its momentum. For me the description of the surrounding forest and add on data on forests makes this book all the more interesting
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews