Wilding - The Library of the Uncommons

paperback, 392 pages

Published Sept. 17, 2019 by New York Review Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-68137-371-3

(2 reviews)

This a blow by blow and month by month account of how a well-managed, but totally unprofitable estate farm in 21st century Britain was managed back to nature, to how it might have been if never touched by human hand. Wilding is a reference book which the interested will return to again and again. To this end, it has been comprehensively indexed and contains an extensive bibliography. Isabella Tree shows herself (and her partner and the estate staff) to be totally practical and competent. But the real magic of the book is in that it can be taken up and left down and opened at any page. It is illustrated by black and white and coloured plates and hand-drawn diagrams. If I were allowed only one book on British rural and farming ways, this would be very close to the top of my wish list

3 editions

loppear reviewed Wilding by Isabella Tree

lovely on unexpected ecological joys when we let go

3 stars

If you had a castle and 3500 acres intensively farmed dairy pastures and crops, and realized that wasn't sustainable, and so sought conservation funding to let it return to a wild state... this is the book is for you to rethink what wild might mean. Presents a hopeful sense that conservation and ecological repair should not be a static goal or species-specific understanding or undertaking ("this used to be wetlands, these birds are only found in closed-canopy forests") but a dynamic stepping back and observing and waiting to find out what the purpose of letting nature proceed may be.

David Clubb reviewed Wilding by Isabella Tree

A beautiful and inspiring book

5 stars

I loved this book. Taking as the starting point an unsustainable agri-business model that will be familiar to anyone who follows 'contemporary' British agriculture practice, the book charts the progress of a farm towards a nature-friendly destination.

The writing is quite beautiful in its description of nature, in hundreds of different ways. The passion of the author clearly shines through, and I hope that other land owners have been inspired as a result.

I finished this book on a trip to the Abergavenny area, like much of Wales over-grazed and an ecosystem desert. There is so much for us to learn and appreciate from nature, and this book has been an amazing insight into possibility.