The Lie of the Land: How a Tiny Group of Landowners Wrecked the Countryside, and How the Public Can Restore It

by Guy Shrubsole

Overview

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS AND THE UNWIN AWARD*

*LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE*

*A WATERSTONES AND GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2024*

'Both dynamite and medicine' AMY-JANE BEER

'Timely and rousing' THE TIMES

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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.

*Guy Shrubsole's The Lost Rainforests of Britain was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2023-04-30*

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008651817
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/02/2025
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

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 and was shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Society Literary Prize. For the past decade and a half Guy has campaigned on the climate and nature crises, working for a wide range of organisations from Friends of the Earth and the Right to Roam campaign, to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). He lives in Devon.

Editorial Reviews

'Timely and rousing' The Times

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

'A very, very good book' John Harris, The Guardian

'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

‘An eye-opening read, both alarming and uplifting in equal measure … If you want to be part of the change, start here’ This England

'Compelling … a timely and important book’ Geographical Magazine

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

‘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

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

From the Publisher