Book Review

Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You

Edited by Nick Hayes & Jon Moses

by Gregory Webster

Wild Service is a new collection of writings from the English Right to Roam movement. Responding to—and essentially rubbishing—the longstanding assertion that monied landowners are responsible stewards of the countryside, these essays chart other possibilities which resoundingly offer a better way of being with the land. England has a very long history of exclusion when it comes to access to our landscapes. Essentially a petri dish for colonialist methodologies for a thousand years, the commoners of England have endured the Norman land grab, enclosures acts, and relocation to work in the dark factories of the Industrial Revolution along the way.  This wilful separation from the commons meant a loss of both the means to independently subsist and to live in workable harmony with wild nature, with all the cultural loss that suggests. Much has obviously changed since those times, but astonishingly an awful lot hasn’t changed at all. Monied landowners who can often attribute their wealth to their ancestors being mates with William the Conqueror still own vast swathes of England. And they still don’t much like the commoners coming anywhere near their land. Realising this isn’t perhaps the best look, the idea that wealthy landowners are in fact dutiful stewards of the countryside and should be left to their good work was deliberately promoted by vested interests from the 1970s, and the myth continues to hold, if creaking badly, to this day. So in order to counter this deception, the Right to Roam movement has provided a collection of essays and case studies about what good stewardship can actually be. Moving beyond ownership, we hear the stories of people taking up the mantle of stewardship without property deeds, nuturing their local places, recommoning, reconnecting, without permission if necessary. This is a beautiful collection evoking reciprocity, kinship, healing, and belonging in the weave of stories, which will resonate far beyond the shores of England. Contributors include folksinger Sam Lee and Right to Roam co-founders Guy Shrubsole and Nick Hayes, who also happens to be an incredibly talented illustrator and printmaker – so the book is also a thing of beauty in and of itself, with stunning illustrations throughout. Essential reading as we feel our way towards an uncertain future, holding our ancient love for the more-than-human world in our hearts.—GW