Our Place: Can We Save Britain's Wildlife Before It Is Too Late?

Description

A radical examination of Britain's relationship with the land, by one of our greatest nature writers. 'Essential reading for anybody who cares about the future' Henry Marsh, *New Statesman Books of the Year* A radical examination of Britain's relationship with the land by one of our greatest nature writers. **SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT GOLDEN BEER BOOK PRIZE 2019** The British love their countryside more than almost any other nation, yet they live in one of the most denatured landscapes on Earth. From the flatlands of Norfolk to the tundra-like expanse of the Flow Country in northern Scotland, Mark Cocker sets out on a personal quest through the British countryside attempting to solve this puzzle. Radical, provocative and original, Our Place tackles some of the central issues of our time whilst mapping out a future in which this overcrowded island of ours could be a place fit not just for human occupants but also for its billions of wild citizens. 'A tour de force... By turns hopeful, melancholy, humorous and heartfelt' BBC Wildlife Book of the Month

Mark Cocker is an author and naturalist whose thirteen books include works of biography, history, literary criticism and memoir. His book Crow Country was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2008 and won the New Angle Prize for Literature in 2009. With the photographer David Tipling he published Birds and People in 2013, a massive survey described by the Times Literary Supplement as 'a major literary event as well as an ornithological one'. Our Place- Can We Save Britain's Wildlife Before It Is Too Late? was described by the Sunday Times as 'impassioned, expert and always beautifully written... a sobering and magnificent work'. His most recent book, A Claxton Diary, won the East Anglia Book Award in 2019.

Essential reading for anybody who cares about the future. -- Henry Marsh * New Statesman **Books of the year** * A seriously great book, important and urgent... As soon as I finished Our Place, I packaged up my copy and sent it off to Michael Gove... this is the kind of book that demands action. -- Alex Preston * Guardian * Best known as one of our foremost nature writers, Mark Cocker spent several years researching this tour de force... stuffed with eye-opening statistics... by turns hopeful, melancholy and humorous... [Our Place] is heartfelt. -- Ben Hoare * BBC Wildlife **Book of the Month** * Thunderingly necessary... Cocker on this kind of form - eloquent, practical, dogged and wise - is the sort of dynamic chivvying force [conservation] will always need... the book he's written - however measured, equable and intelligent - is a call for revolution. -- Richard Smyth * New Statesman * Impassioned, expert and always beautifully written... Our Place is a sobering and magnificent work. -- Christopher Hart * Sunday Times * It is easy to be angry about environmental destruction; easy to demand change without hope but in this potent, elegant and influencing telling of the story of what we have done to England's wildlife, Mark Cocker archives something more: a reasoned tone in a radical cause. If you care about our country, read it. -- Julian Glover * Evening Standard **Books of the Year** * What a relief it is to have this subject explored without the usual diatribes and righteous hysteria. Cocker's quiet tone carries great authority and... [Our Place] deserves to command respect and wide attention. -- Tom Fort * Literary Review * A fierce polemic by an eminent ornithologist about Britain's denuded natural habitat. * Sunday Times **Must Reads** * Fascinating... Our Place is a brave book... It will undoubtedly ruffle what few figurative feathers we have left. -- Katharine Norbury * Caught by the River * A new book by Mark Cocker is a major event, and [Our Place] is no exception... Cocker has always been brilliant at considering our relationship with nature... You can come away from it feeling that something can be done, that we can save Britain's wildlife, if only there is the will to turn well-meaning generalities into action. The clock is ticking. -- Matt Merritt and John Miles * Bird Watching *