Wilding

Isabella Tree’s book Wilding, published in 2018, describes the remarkable rewilding project she and her husband launched at their country estate, Knepp in West Sussex. By abandoning intensive farming methods, allowing large native breeds like Old English Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies and Tamworth pigs to roam free, and standing back to let nature take charge, they have brought about an extraordinary change. The landscape of Knepp is transformed while it is now home to thriving populations of kingfishers, nightingales, larks. In fact, in just over twenty years, the birdsong is so loud, says Tree, that ‘it feels like its vibrating in your lungs.’ The Purple Emperor, one of our rarest species of butterfly, is another success story, with a large breeding colony on the estate.

This very beautiful version of her book is a special adaptation for young readers. There are eye-catching colour photos of the estate and its wildlife but, even more spectacular, lino cuts and watercolour paintings by illustrator Angela Harding. In her introduction Harding says she created many of the linocuts on site at Knepp, drawing directly onto the lino as she looked out across the fields. That spontaneity is obvious in her dazzling images, the double page spreads of jays collecting acorns, red deer, butterflies in native grasses – or weeds as we tend to call them – are masterpieces of colour, composition and texture. Tree’s text will hold young people’s attention just as well. She describes both the impact of letting nature set its own course and its interconnectedness with the same clarity, particular details such as how fields of creeping thistle were happily destroyed by painted lady butterflies, or the transformative power of beavers, or benefits of anthills, or pony dung bound to prove memorable and with readers of all ages. The book is sure to be the source of hope and inspiration for a new generation that Tree intended.