An engaging blend of conservation, humour and personal anecdotes of a woman adjusting from life in the wilderness to life back on an ever-more crowded island
For years, Philippa Forrester lived in Wyoming, where grizzly bears and wolves were her neighbours. At first, she was terrified: bear attacks are a reality and living in the middle of nowhere in winter is no joke. But soon, her soul soared as high as the mountains. And despite not having a job or a big house, Philippa was happier than she had ever been.
So how did it feel when she had to return to live in the UK? After experiencing the highs of a love affair with the wild west, for Philippa, returning to an overcrowded island during a pandemic felt like climbing into a straightjacket.
Feeling mournful, claustrophobic and longing for the wilderness led Philippa to explore our relationship with the wild. What do we expect and need from it? Why do we still have those needs? What’s the science behind the pull we feel towards nature? Is our need for wilderness linked to how we evolved? And can Philippa satisfy her cravings by immersing herself in the UK garden she’s been rewilding for the last two decades or by visiting the last remaining pockets of wilderness in the UK?
Re-examining her thirty years of global travels while interviewing people living in some of the last few genuinely wild parts of the UK, Philippa explores what having a close relationship with nature can do for us. And she investigates how what we want from the natural world competes with what we need from the natural world, and what the natural world needs from us. Are we over-intellectualising our place on the planet? Do we even want true wilderness or do we prefer the wild ‘pasteurised’? In this accessible and entertaining book, Philippa discover a new wild world right on her doorstep.
