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From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain comes a fierce expose of how private landowners wreck the countryside, and how the public can restore it
Britain's landowners, we are told, are the rightful stewards of the countryside. They care for the land, they nurture it for future generations and for the good of all. But this is not true. In The Lie of the Land, Guy Shrubsole shows that a handful of large landowners are responsible for the destruction and degradation of many of our most important landscapes. This book paints a vivid picture of some of the most dramatic failures of land stewardship in Britain's recent history. But it also tells the story of the people trying to pick up the pieces – the small-scale farmers, community groups and members of the public who may not own land, but who nevertheless seek to be its custodians.
The time has come to shed our deference to landowners and demand that they live up to their ideals of stewardship – or forfeit the right to own land. In overturning the 'lie of the land', Shrubsole shows that we can all become custodians of the countryside once again.
Guy Shrubsole was formerly a campaigner and an investigator for Friends of the Earth. As a writer, he has written widely for publications including the Guardian and New Statesman. His previous book, Who Owns England?, was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.
PRAISE FOR THE LOST RAINFORESTS OF BRITAIN:
'Remarkable ... Shrubsole has completely changed the way many people look at the temperate woodlands that remain in parts of western Britain' Financial Times
'If anyone was born to save Britain's rainforests, it was Guy Shrubsole' Sunday Times, The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year
'Fascinating, lyrical ... A celebration of these dazzling worlds and a plea to act before they are extinguished' The Times
'[The Lost Rainforests of Britain] could be a lament but instead it is suffused with the irrepressible positivity and cheerful enthusiasm of a born campaigner' Patrick Barkham, Guardian
'Enchanting and insightful ... Wonderfully evocative' Geographical
'Excellent ... Inspiring' Unherd
'A treasure chest full of woodland jewels, rare, precious and beautiful' Chris Packham
'A magnificent and crucial book that opens our eyes to untold wonders' George Monbiot
'A beautiful, lyrical and urgent book ... I cannot recommend it enough' Nick Hayes, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Book of Trespass
'Utterly enchanting, transporting and spellbinding ... A rallying cry for restoring the rainforests of Britain urgently, and an inspiring and informative must-read for anyone interested in rewilding and ecological restoration' Lucy Jones, author of Losing Eden
'Passionate, powerful, political and practicable, Guy Shrubsole gives us a blueprint for how to bring our missing rainforests back to life in all their riotous, tangled glory. Impeccably researched, convincingly argued and with generous measures of joyful discovery, this really is a spectacular book' Lee Schofield, author of Wild Fell
