Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden

by Benedict Macdonald, Nicholas Gates

Everything from grey squirrels to hornets, tawny owls to hazel dormice and even stoats and common toads line up to take advantage of the nesting and roosting sites created by the orchard's cabinet-makers. This lyrical, month-by-month journey through one of the most endangered parts of the countryside is an account of an ancient English orchard from January to December, celebrating the extraordinary range of animals and plants it supports and its rich ecosystem. If we can rewild England's orchards, favouring organic methods and harvesting with a balanced ecosystem in mind, not only wildlife but people will profit from this enrichment for centuries to come. We are taken into the Malvern Hills and the twin peaks of a hop kiln and into the rambling countryside of Europe's oldest corner to learn about apples and bears.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Natural History, Audiobook, History, Gardening, Animals

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 20, 2020

About the author

I'm a conservation writer, producer in wildlife television, and naturalist, passionate about restoring Britain's wildlife, pelicans very much included, in my lifetime. In television I have worked on projects for the BBC, ITV, Netflix and Apple. Sir David Attenborough's Our Planet (Netflix), a series I worked on for three years, was awarded two Emmy's in 2019. As a writer I am the author of Rebirding and co-author of Orchard. My third book, Cornerstones, was released in July 2022.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bristol friends and BBC colleagues Ben Macdonald and Nick Gates set out to chronicle a year in the life of a traditional Herefordshire orchard that has been managed differently from the industrial norm. Operations are designed to maximize wildlife as well as production, so the orchard has become a bastion for birds and insects. After a brief history of apple cultivation and orchard design, it’s straight into a month-by-month rundown of what can be seen and heard on this particular patch. For the most part, the co-authors trade off chapters. They observe and describe the kinds of behaviours that most of us never get to see. A central section of remarkable photographs, some of them by the authors, illustrates the year as vividly as the passionate prose.

See my full review at Shiny New Books.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had enough land I would plant an orchard. Sadly I haven’t got that opportunity so I have to make do with visiting the few community orchards every now and again. The one tucked away behind the church in Bridport is one of my favourites. I knew they could be a haven for wildlife, but having read this book, I think that the diversity and range of habitats that they offer is second to none.

This particular orchard that is the subject of the book is quite special. To start with it hasn’t been grubbed up to satisfy the whim of some anonymous civil servant who needs for complete form of some kind, nor has it been touched by chemicals. Sadly they keep its location secret as it is a private orchard as I would love to be able to visit. Instead, they become our eyes and ears looking at the wildlife that inhabit the fruit trees.

The owners of the land do maintain it, but they are happy to leave fallen branches to rot down providing many more habitats for the vast numbers of species that can be found here. With the abundance of insects in the orchard, come their predators and the orchard is full of numerous species of birds, who have plenty of place to nest because of the light touch management of the orchard by the owners. With an abundance of birds come the raptors and this orchard is rich in those too.

I thought was an excellent book. Not only is it packed full of the tiniest details of the life that inhabits this very special orchard, but it is really well written by both the authors. Their writing is evocative and they are happy to share their extensive knowledge with the reader. But most of all it is an inspirational book about how we can use the orchards we have to give wildlife the urgent helping hand it needs in this climate emergency.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glorious, I want an orchard run on these lines.

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book about a genuinely organic, left to nature, unsullied apple and pear orchard in Herefordshire and all its natural inhabitants.

The passion of the two nature writers for their subject shines through in their accounts of studying insects, birds and other varied creatures in the orchard. Similarly the dedication of the orchard owners shines through in their commitment to natural farming practices and respect towards all animal life.

This book gives me hope that there are people out there not hell bent on ruining the planet. Some rare positive humans!

[Alex Sarll]

Two Springwatch veterans recount a year in the long life of a Herefordshire orchard still managed the old-fashioned way, with animals rather than chemical solutions used to deal with pests, and no thought of arranging the trees or selecting varieties towards an overriding goal of efficiency. Which should be absolute catnip to me, but for all that I love a ramshackle old orchard; for all that I am myself prone to bemoaning the fucking state of humanity's treatment of the environment, not least the destructive urge towards 'tidiness'; and for all that I understand the urge to rebalance nature writing away from an excessively fluffy approach - even the pessimistic husk of a self with which the 2020s have left me found this one so relentlessly moany that it got a bit bloody much. I don't doubt that this orchard and its region are lovely; hell, it's one of the areas I sometimes daydream about escaping to. But to read this you'd think the whole rest of the country was one miserable monoculture. "From the meadowland orchards of Bromyard to the rich cider orchards of Much Marcle, woodpeckers and bats, owls and beetles, all thrive side by side as they once did across the whole county centuries before." Yeah, and as they still do in the little wood behind my London home. Although you'll never look at woodpeckers the same way after some of the revelations here, I can tell you that much. Set against the excoriation of Britain is a dreamy chapter in praise of the orchards and villages of the Carpathians, which may well be true as far as nature goes (though if so I'd love to know how they've recovered so well from the determined, demented modernisation drive under Ceaușescu) but is so insistent on suggesting there are no possible downsides to this situation for anyone in any walk of life that it does rather beg the question of why so many Eastern Europeans decided to come to despoiled and denuded Britain that it led Britain to shoot itself in the face by way of registering its concerns over the matter. Nor is it only regarding this that one gets a sense of the authors reaching for effect, as in this passage on migrant birds: "But if these fieldfares hadn't hopped the North Sea, these birds would be now experiencing the full force of a hyperborean winter". Leave aside the odd sense of translationese right after the comma, but that's a bloody odd use of 'hyperborean', which I've only ever known to mean *beyond* the North Wind, not 'very North Wind'. The disappointment of the reading experience is encapsulated when the orchard year comes around to October, and the cider press comes out...only for the chapter to talk far more about the horror that is perry. Though I suppose they at least deserve points for calling it perry, rather than propagating the inexplicable notion that 'pear cider' is a thing.

Despite all of which, it does sound like a truly delightful orchard, and I would like many more of its kind to come back, and I enjoyed finding out about its animal inhabitants (except for those bloody woodpeckers). Hell, even bears make an appearance in the prelude, having played a surprisingly important role in spreading the apple from Kazakhstan. Such helpful fellows.

[Sanjuro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a lot of nature writing, because I enjoy escaping into the finer and lesser known details of the natural world; but - I find a lot of nature writing to be recycled versions of familiar tropes, so I seldom feel impressed by any new nature book I read. There are the classics, and then many charming rehashes. This is a rare case where a book was different. The structure is familiar (mapping nature through seasons or the twelve months is done more often than it isn't), but the idea of charting the grand scale of British nature through a single, diverse apple orchard was inspired and deeply moving (never mind the fact that apples are my favorite food and I'm fascinated by orchards as it is). The two authors are wonderful writers and brilliant observers of detail. On the one hand, they discuss the harrowing effects of climate change, and on the other, they appear to laud Brexit as a chance for Britain to escape unfortunate EU policies that have harmed British orchards. In other words, they take both "liberal" and "conservative" stances, showing that, in the end, they are not being partisan in their approach - they are political in so far as politics affect the health of the orchards. The writing was compelling, and the approach admirable. One of the better nature books I've ever read.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been fascinated by orchards and can happily spend a lot of time wandering among fruit trees on visits to great gardens, so I couldn’t resist this book. The story of a year in an ancient Herefordshire cider and perry orchard, untouched by chemical fertilisers since 1930, it is both a love song and an elegy for a way of growing produce that seems to have been left behind by industrialised food production. The richly complex ecosystem that the orchard supports is lovingly described and made comprehensible for the lay reader. It’s impossible to read Orchard without feeling a sense of wonder at the finely balanced natural world that these few acres supports, and one of sadness at how far removed this Eden is from the chemically-induced monocultures that surround it.

[Sølvi Goard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this useful as an agroforestry worker, we've spent the first half of the year grafting several thousand trees. It's really useful to get this year long frame of ecosystem reference to think about how we encourage that as the trees grow and as we send them out to new community orchards.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lovely book. Centred around a single Hereforshire orchard, the book details how the wildife of these increasingly rare locations changes over the course of a single year. As an expatriat living in the Middle East, books like this are a necessary (to me) life line that connects me back to the good old English countryside. The fact that the English countryside is in so much trouble, thanks not least to the Common Agricultural Policy, which whatever your views about Brexit has dealt a huge and potentially fatal blow to the UK's wildlife, means that capturing the story of one, unspoiled orchard in a sea of bleached and pesticide ridden food crops is utterly poignant as well as important.

I encourage everyone to read this book. It will appeal to anyone with a love of the English countryside and with an interest in re-wilding and ecology.

[Roger Morgan-Grenville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a good one, wildlife writing can't be rushed, but needs to be observed through all the seasons and weathers. This book has been, which is why it works so well.

[Dan Carey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The reader was putting me to sleep even at 1.35x, and the text was a bit prolix. So I returned it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really intriguing read about the british orchard, told in chapters dedicated to each month of a year. Packed with facts, this short book is highly informative. A lot of information on the flora and fauna, on egolocial systems and on the history of orchards, apple trees and cider in Britain are presented in a very delightful and readable way. The authors understand how to keep one's attention with throwing in anecdotes and sometimes even gripping stories.
Overall, a read I can recommend to anyone looking for an informative but also atmospheric read on this niche of nature. For me, it was exactly what I was looking for: an escape option into nature, while I am sitting on my coach waiting for spring to arrive.
I wished, the authors included more pictures into this book - so many different animals, especially bird and insects, are covered in here and I always had to look up photos on the Internet while reading. Maybe I should have been satisfied with the given descriptions, who knows. But some more photos or drawings would have made the book perfect for me.

[Abdullah Imran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully descriptive writing vividly bringing one into a scarcely considered topic, and its ecological profundity: English orchards. You can very casually learn a lot about beautiful species and systems you’ve never heard of before. However, whilst the writing in isolation is lovely, the disconnected and slightly repetitive nature of each chapter makes it hard to lumber through the whole book.

[Jemima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love learning about how connected nature, animals and humans are. New appreciation for the value of our traditional orchards and as always angry at how short sighted we are as humans to not protect this special world around us!

[Jonathan Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting study of a year in the life of an organic orchard somewhere near Malvern in Worcestershire. The orchard teams with wildlife; birds, insects, mammals, plants, fungi, all not found in the sterile farmland and commercial orchards in the surrounding landscape.
I enjoyed the enthusiasm and fascinating insights into the behaviour and scarcity of these once common birds, plants and animals.
I had expected more apples and less birds but still found much to enjoy.

[Bethany Plummer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this 🌳 Learnt something new on every page and felt completely transported to this ancient orchard. Each chapter talks the reader through every month, focusing on the trees, flora, fauna and underground mycelium network of the orchard and how they connect and work together to create a rich habitat that pretty much looks after itself. Couldn’t recommend this book more 💚

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was enjoyable, but also gave me much pause for thought about the nature of food production and the countryside. It also provided interesting tidbits about farming, growing fruit, and how to better interact with those creatures that call orchards home. Although it focuses on an English orchard, I suspect many of the findings could be adapted to North America as well.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 really. It's an excellent book.

[Suzanne Bhargava · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me want to buy up a bunch of sad wheat fields and fill them with hedgerows and orchards. If anyone would like to fund my new life, please apply here.

[Neil Crossley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful almanac of life in one incredibly rare traditional orchard in Herefordshire where the ancient fruit trees are left to die and rot, fallen fruit is left for the creatures of the night and unsurprisingly a vibrant and diverse proxy for the woodland pasture that once covered this land thousands of year’s ago survives. The book moves for a time to Eastern Europe to see how this munificence of nature exists as a matter of course in whole landscapes that are managed leas intensively. Incredibly important book that points the way toward injecting back some diversity into not just our farms an orchards but our own gardens. If you want lettuce don’t poison the slugs and dig a pool for toads. Equilibrium will come and leave suitable homes and the hedgehogs will arrive and maybe then badgers - moths, bats, the lists goes on - we should cry for what we have lost.

[Kizzia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learnt so much from this beautifully written and well organised book that I’m about to return to the beginning and start again to see what other gems of information I missed first time around.

Looking at every aspect of Orchard life, from the trees and the birds to the fungal network below the surface this book managed to be at once nostalgic, scientific and a call to arms in the face of climate change. I’ve been left with the urge to make a myriad of changes to how I look after my own (very much not orchard sized) patch of earth and with a list of things I want to research further, I cannot praise this book enough and would encourage everyone to read it!

Plus it is excellently narrated by Mike Grady.

[Chris Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book was a fully immersive experience, as I was taken gently through the seasons in the most extraordinary orchard, a bounteous relic of bygone times. I thought the dual authorship worked well, presenting the facts with a poetic touch, yet without any sentimentality. A vast amount of natural knowledge was shared with ease through the enjoyable narrative.

The (hidden) location of the orchard resonated with me, as I know the area well. Having watched ivy mining bees, bats, stag beetles buried in rotten wood, and wild boar startled in headlights.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book, which I recommend to anyone with an interest in natural history, and the long-term impact of humanity on the countryside.

[Grace Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am loving this book! Not only is it hugely informative about nature but it is also beautifully written. The descriptions are so vivid I feel like I am there in the ancient orchard.
This book has enabled me to view my own countryside surroundings with new eyes. I am noticing nests that I would have previously passed by. Reading this book has inspired me to do all I can to bring more nature back to my horses field.

[Rach Jameson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so wanted to love this. It's everything I would usually go for in a book, and I'm a fan of Nicholas Gates, particularly his work as a nature documentary producer (Wild Isles is one of my favourite all time series). The book came highly recommended and I know many people who have read it, but sadly it just didn't get me very excited. Not much more to say really. I did learn some interesting facts about Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, so the two stars are for that.

[Suzanne Diesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought me back to being a child. Development has destroyed so much of the countryside where I grew up. Now, on an island, it is repeating. I hear the birds in the early morning and dusknon my farm/orchard with wonder. Does anyone else hear? All people think about is growth and amassing wealth of material hoods. Nature is crying.

[nickwalbridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book, so informative and a delight to read. This book is one to keep and read multiple times. Should be read by all who work the land to enable them to reverse the trend of chemicals on the land. I thoroughly recommend this book, I loved it and did not really want it to end.

[Sabaha · Rating 5 out of 5]

(audible)
What an amazing listen - absolutely wonderful. Educational and inspiring. Intresting and calming.

The narration was superbly done. I loved listening to this whilst falling asleep or doing mineal tasks.
I've gained knowledge on the intricacies of nature.
It was beautiful.

[Ashley George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional. Unaware of how crucial orchards are to our natural environment, I learnt so much. The writing is engaging, informative and well researched. I would love to visit this orchard and meet the many inhabitants.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought me so much joy but also filled me with great sadness at what we are losing through poor stewardship of the land we are supposed to look after. We are fortunate to still have some farmers who work with nature rather than against it. The old orchard sounds magnificent.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old English orchard, deeply observed. This was a soothing springtime read, top-notch nature writing, and yet another reminder of what we stand to lose in the wake of climate change and habitat destruction.