Description

WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION 2023

The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year

As seen on Countryfile

‘If anyone was born to save Britain’s rainforests, it was Guy Shrubsole’ Sunday Times

Shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Society Literary Prize

Temperate rainforest may once have covered up to one-fifth of Britain, inspiring Celtic druids, Welsh wizards, Romantic poets, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s most loved creations. Though only fragments now remain, they are home to a dazzling variety of luminous life-forms.

In this awe-inspiring investigation, Guy Shrubsole travels through the Western Highlands and the Lake District, down to the rainforests of Wales, Devon, and Cornwall to map these spectacular lost worlds for the first time.

This is the extraordinary tale of one person’s quest to find Britain’s lost rainforests – and bring them back.

*Guy’s next book The Lie of the Land is out 12 September 2024*

Publisher Review

‘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