The Medicine Tree with Nick Hayes
Mon 28 Sep 2026
7:00pm at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Book & ticket includes a ticket with a copy of the book. All tickets include 15% off any books purchased on the night, author talk, Q&A and signing.
Other ways to book:
Email books@mrbsemporium.com, call 01225 331155 or pop into the shop at 14-15 John Street, Bath. BA1 2JL.
We are thrilled to welcome award-winning writer, illustrator and land justice campaigner, Nick Hayes to Bath for his new book, The Medicine Tree.
From the bestselling author of The Book of Trespass (a huge Mr B’s fave), and co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign – advocating for public access to nature in England – comes a beautifully illustrated, and deeply felt exploration of the struggle between ownership and belonging in England. The Medicine Tree sees Nick living and working among an extraordinary community of farmers and craftspeople, as he contemplates what we have lost and how we can re-enchant our relationship with the land.
Can’t make it to the event? Order a signed and dedicated copy here.
About the book:
Early one September, Nick Hayes brought his houseboat up the Thames into rural Oxfordshire, mooring opposite a strange tree that towered over the surrounding meadowland. The tree, he would discover, was a hybrid of the eastern cottonwood, brought back from colonial Canada. The land was the Hardwick estate, whose apparently timeless tranquillity – like so much of the English countryside – masks a darker history.
Yet Hardwick also tells another, quite different story. Over the following months, Hayes learns that its rolling hills and fertile valleys are on the front lines of a battle between ownership and belonging. Through a golden autumn, and the frosts and floods of winter and early spring, Hayes explores an estate that, acknowledging the colonial origins of its wealth, has become a haven for those who are both unable and unwilling to be part of a countryside geared towards profit at any cost.
Living and working among this extraordinary community of farmers and craftspeople, Hayes contemplates what we have lost in England, as our sense of kinship with the land, and the deep knowledge that arose from it, was destroyed. Yet, Hayes suggests, if we can learn from the cultures we have exploited, and from the tentative roots being put down in this radical Oxfordshire estate, perhaps we can start to unpick – and even re-enchant – our relationship with the land. The Medicine Tree is a singular act of storytelling and recovery: of giants, gods, witches, trees, horror and hope, of entanglement, reparation and solidarity.
About the author:
Nick Hayes is an award-winning writer, illustrator and land justice campaigner. In 2020 he co-founded Right to Roam, the influential campaign group advocating for public access to nature in England. He is the author of, among others, the Sunday Times best-seller The Book of Trespass and co-editor of Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You. An acclaimed artist, he has published four graphic novels and exhibited across the country, including at the Hayward Gallery. He lives on a canal boat with no fixed address.