BOOK REVIEW - THE LOST RAIN FORESTS OF BRITAIN BY GUY SHRUBSOLE

 Book Review

Title                         The Lost Rainforests of Britain

Author                      Guy Shrubsole

Published by            William Collins

A SUNDAY TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Guy Shrubsole is an activist and author of the previously published, Who Owns England,  by William Collins in 2019. The front cover carries the legend ‘How We Lost Our Green & Pleasant Land & How To Take It Back’ and that elucidates the premise of what he and his writings are about. His views will be enforced yet again with The Lie of the Land which is due to be published on 12th September this year.

Guy Shrubsole undertook an awe-inspiring investigation in his travels on the western edge of Britain from Scotland, Wales, through the Lake District and into Devon and Cornwall  The Lost Rainforests of Britain or where they were is sobering reading of what we once had. He estimates that a fifth of the land would have been covered in temperate rain forest. Now all that remains is fragments that have been lost overtime but these provide a home for a dazzling variety of luminous life. He tells of the past and the difficulties being experienced in establishing where they were. Old maps, place names and local knowledge can indicate where the fragments of those old forests were. He is able to bring into today the myths and legends from Druid, from Welsh stories and by referencing the Mabinogion and Conan Doyle’s creations based on Dartmoor.

Wonderful fragments do remain where they are often protected by isolation and ‘difficult’ terrain. He talks of the threats to their continued existence where privately owned land is a factor by allowing overgrazing by sheep in particular. Nature will regenerate itself if the shoots of new growth are not continually being nibbled. Less sheep would be good but we have an expanding deer population to contend with as well. All of this is explained in depth and with ideas for the future.

The oceanic western edge of Britain hosts extreme wet conditions and where residual temperate rain forests can be found. They are not always obvious but are delightful to enter with stunted tree growth warped by the wind and providing habitats for lichens, mosses, ferns and much more. There is a very special beauty in these dripping wet places. 

A very informative and detailed account of what we once had and how to maintain and protect what we still have. His writing is inspiring and provokes my thinking for the need for more knowledge of what can be found in a British Temperate Rain Forest.

This book has details of further reading, contacts, and sites to follow. For more information on the Lost Rainforests of Britain campaign a visit to - lostrainforestsofbritain.org - will give the enquirer stacks of information and hopefully the urge to help protect what we still have.