The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside?, Guy Shrubsole

The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside?

Guy Shrubsole

*A WATERSTONES AND GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2024*

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS*

'Both dynamite and medicine' AMY-JANE BEER

'It couldn't be more relevant' JAMES O'BRIEN

'Timely and rousing' THE TIMES

The lie of the land: that Britain's landowners care for the countryside.

Our landowning elite are paid billions of taxpayer pounds to be good stewards. But these same landowners have carelessly trampled over our best-loved landscapes, leaving the rivers polluted, fenlands drained, and moorlands burned.

Guy Shrubsole has travelled across Britain to expose the lie and meet the communities fighting back to restore our lost landscapes. This is a bold, shared vision for our nation's wild places, and how we can treat them with the awe and care they deserve.

Book Details

  • Publisher: William Collins
  • Publish Date: Apr 8th, 2025
  • Pages: 320
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.45in - 6.36in - 1.19in - 1.18lb
  • EAN: 9780008651770
  • Categories: Ecosystems & Habitats - GeneralEnvironmental Conservation & Protection - GeneralPublic Policy - Environmental Policy

More books to explore

Book Cover for: Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World, Kristin Ohlson
Book Cover for: Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World, Steven Hawley
Book Cover for: Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont, Robert Bilott
Book Cover for: No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, Greta Thunberg
Book Cover for: Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth, Tony Hiss
Book Cover for: Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have, Tatiana Schlossberg
Book Cover for: This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America's National Monuments, McKenzie Long
Book Cover for: Superman's Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do about It, Erin Brockovich
Book Cover for: An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity, Wes Jackson
Book Cover for: Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska's Tongass Rain Forest [With CD (Audio)], Amy Gulick
Book Cover for: Wild Ohio: The Best of Our Natural Heritage, Jim McCormac
Book Cover for: Drifting Into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River, Janisse Ray
Book Cover for: Atlas of Florida's Natural Heritage: Biodiversity, Landscapes, Stewardship, and Opportunities, Gary R. Knight
Book Cover for: Chattooga: Descending Into the Myth of Deliverance River, John Lane
Book Cover for: Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet, John W. Reid

About the Author

Shrubsole, Guy: -

Guy Shrubsole is an environmental campaigner and writer. He is the author of Who Owns England?, an instant Sunday Times bestseller, and The Lost Rainforests of Britain, which won the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation. For the past decade Guy has campaigned on the climate and nature crises, working for organisations ranging from Friends of the Earth and the Right to Roam campaign, to Defra. He lives in Devon.

More books by Guy Shrubsole

Book Cover for: The Lost Rainforests of Britain, Guy Shrubsole
Book Cover for: Who Owns England?: How We Lost Our Land and How to Take It Back, Guy Shrubsole

Praise for this book

'Timely and rousing' The Times

'It couldn't be more relevant' James O'Brien

'A fascinating exposé' The i

'Urgent and essential' Caroline Lucas

'Exhilarating, insightful and bristling with rightful indignation' Lee Schofield

'The unjust impositions of historic land ownership blight all our lives - here Guy shows why' Chris Packham

'This unflinching, illuminating book manages to be both dynamite and medicine' Amy-Jane Beer

'What a book! Vitally important, and superbly written' Aaron Bastani

'Shrubsole has the belly fire of a campaigner but the precision of an historian' Roger Mortlock

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

'A smart, peaceful and practical plan for how we can turn this land into our land' Patrick Barkham

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

'This book beautifully subverts the central orthodoxy of England' Nick Hayes

'This is Guy Shrubsole's best book yet' Mark Avery

'Compelling ... a timely and important book' Geographical Magazine

'Genuinely jaw-dropping ... bristling with energy and ideas' Martha Dillon

'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

'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' Claire Ratinon

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