Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back - an Illustrated Guide
Winner of the Book of the Year, Children's Non-Fiction at The British Book Awards, 2025
Shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize for Nature and Conservation Writing for Children
Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back - An Illustrated Guide is a stunningly beautiful gift book written by Isabella Tree, which tells the story of the Knepp Estate in West Sussex and introduces younger readers to the concept of rewilding.
It is illustrated in full colour with lino prints and watercolours by Angela Harding, photographs from Knepp, and easy in-garden activities helping you to 're-wild' your own spaces.
Knepp is now home to some of the rarest and most beautiful creatures in the UK, including nightingales, peregrine falcons, scarce chaser dragonflies, and purple emperor butterflies. When you walk out into the scrubland on an early spring morning the sound of birdsong is so loud it feels like it’s vibrating in your lungs. This is the story of Knepp, and a guide telling you how to bring wildlife back where you live.
With timelines, an in-depth look at rewilding, and spotlight features about native animals including species that have returned and thrive – butterflies, bats, owls and beetles – this book encourages you to slow down and observe the natural world around you. Learn to understand the connections between species and habitats, and the huge potential for life right on your doorstep.
'Perfect for anyone looking to make the life of even a hedgehog a little easier' – Daily Mail
'A beautiful edition for young people. There is so much optimism in hearing how nature heals itself when left alone' – The Times
Isabella Tree is an award-winning author and travel writer, and lives with her husband, the conservationist Charlie Burrell, in the middle of a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex.
She is author of five non-fiction books including Wilding: How to Bring Nature Back - An Illustrated Guide. Her book Wilding - The Return of Nature to a British Farm has sold quarter of a million copies worldwide and won the Richard Jefferies prize for nature writing and was one of the Smithsonian's top ten science books of the year.
Angela Harding is an author, printmaker and illustrator who lives in the village of Wing, Rutland. British birds and animals have always inspired her artwork especially familiar garden birds like sparrows and blackbirds and waders such as Curlews, Redshanks and Oystercatchers.
She is the author and illustrator of A Year Unfolding: A Printmaker’s View and Wild Light: A Printmaker’s Day and Night, illustrator of Wilding: How the Bring Wildlife Back - An Illustrated Guide and has created the covers for many bestselling books, including The Salt Path and The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn, October, October by Katya Balen, English Pastoral by James Rebanks, Christmas is Murder by Val McDermid and RSPB Birds among many others.