A veteran nature writer walks the length of Britain in pursuit of spring, and of hope. Fed up with bleak headlines of biodiversity loss, acclaimed nature writer Roger Morgan-Grenville sets out on a 1,000-mile walk through a British spring to see whether there are reasons to be hopeful about the natural world. His aim is to match the pace at which the oak leaves emerge, roughly 20 miles north each day.
Fighting illness, blizzards and his own ageing body, he visits every main habitat between Lymington and Cape Wrath in an epic eight-week adventure, encountering, over and over again, the kindness of strangers and the inspiring efforts of those fighting heroically for nature. With surprising conclusions throughout, what unfolds is both life-affirming and life-changing.
Roger Morgan-Grenville was a soldier from 1978-86. In 2007, he helped to set up the charity Help for Heroes, and in 2020 he was a founding member of the conservation charity, Curlew Action. His earlier titles, Liquid Gold, Shearwater, and Taking Stock, are also published by Icon. He lives in West Sussex.
– Shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Award 2023
"Roger Morgan-Grenville, one of Britain's leading conservationists"
– The Herald
"Prescient, perceptive and powerful: an articulate and thoughtful account of nature's increasingly fragile state experienced through an advancing spring."
– Tim Birkhead, author of Birds and Us
"a good read [...] I enjoyed it very much."
– Dr Mark Avery, wildlife campaigner
"Beautifully captures the essence of a British Spring"
– Birdwatch Magazine