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The Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain reveals how landowners wreck the countryside, and how the public can restore it

‘Brave and brilliant’ George Monbiot

‘Urgent and essential … should be required reading’
Caroline Lucas

For centuries we’ve been sold a lie: that you need to own the land to care for it.

Just 1% of the population own half of England, and this tiny landowning elite like to present themselves as the rightful custodians of the countryside. They’re even paid billions of pounds of public money to be good stewards. But what happens when they just don’t care?

A small number of landowners have laid waste to some of our most treasured landscapes, leaving our forests bare, our rivers polluted, our moorlands burned, and our fenlands drained. Here Guy Shrubsole journeys all over Britain to expose the damage done to our land, and meet the communities fighting back: the river guardians, small farmers and trespassing activists restoring our lost wildlife. Full of rage and hope, this is a bold vision for our nation’s wild places, and how we can treat them with the awe and attention they deserve.

It’s time to demand better for nature. We can start by replacing the lie of the land with a profound truth: that any of us can care for the countryside, regardless of whether you own it.

‘The unjust impositions of historic land ownership blight all our lives – here Guy shows why’
Chris Packham

‘Both dynamite and medicine’ Amy-Jane Beer

Publisher Review

‘The unjust impositions of historic land ownership blight all our lives – here Guy shows why’ Chris Packham

‘Exhilarating, insightful and bristling with rightful indignation’ Lee Schofield

‘A heartfelt, historically resonant call to reject the myth that private landownership delivers good stewardship of nature’ Corinne Fowler

‘If you care about our environment, read this book’ Sir John Lawton CBE FRS

‘This book beautifully subverts the central orthodoxy of England, that owning land is the only way to care for it’ Nick Hayes

‘Guy Shrubsole asserts the right of the majority to engage in what happens to land. As England struggles with its post-Brexit identity, the lie of the land matters deeply’ Tim Lang

‘At once shocking and comforting, scathing and uplifting. A book on this subject shouldn’t be so readable. A triumph’ Sophie Pavelle

‘Shrubsole has the belly fire of a campaigner but the precision of an historian.’ Roger Mortlock, Chief Executive of CPRE

‘Unlike earlier revolutionaries, this Guy has a smart, peaceful and practical plan for how we can turn this land into our land’ Patrick Barkham

‘Who really cares for the countryside? Guy does. His articulate fervour, seasoned with humour, shouts from every page. He throws down a timely gauntlet to centuries of tradition’ Tom Heap

‘Extraordinary. An affirmation of another kind of rural life that exists within this lie, and all the possibilities that are open to us if we defy it’ Nicola Chester

‘A rousing call to action that proposes practical interventions for how management of the countryside could – and should – be improved for the benefit of both people and environment’ Claire Ratinon

‘Radical and urgent, measured and considered … an essential place to start’ Dr Rose O’Neill, Chief Executive, Campaign for National Parks