Bøker av Derek Gow

Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2024 for Nature Writing????? The Telegraph'One of the most remarkable figures in British conservation.' The Observer'There have been several books on the fate of British wolves, but this is the best.' The Spectator'Beautifully crafted, fascinating and unbearably poignant, I totally loved this book.' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding'A dazzling romp through the turbulent history of wolves in Britain.' Lee Schofield, author of Wild Fell'Gow's anecdotes will leave you howling - and his historical detective work to track down the shadow of the wolf is as gripping as any thriller.' Guy Shrubsole, author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain'Gow reinvents what it means to be a guardian of the countryside.' GuardianAuthor of Bringing Back the Beaver and Britain's favourite maverick rewilder Derek Gow embarks on an adventure to uncover the mythology, mystery and history of wolves in Britain. Derek Gow's dream is that one day we will see the return of the wolf to Britain. Wolf rewilding projects have been successfully implemented across the world - so what is holding us back in the UK?Hunt for the Shadow Wolf is Derek's quest to uncover the true nature of this magnificent creature. As Derek worked to reintroduce the beaver, he began to hear stories of the wolf, both real and mythical, and his fascination with it grew. He pieced together fragments of information, stories and artefacts to reveal a shadowy creature that first walked proud through these lands and then was hunted to extinction. What Derek came to realise was that the underlying motives behind our hatred were actually rooted in power and profit. We turned the wolf into a savage beast and saw its extirpation as a civilising mission. But the wolf endured and Derek tells of his sightings through folklore and mythology, the records of grand estates and parish churches as well as wolf heads, both real and recreated. With bitingly funny but also tender stories, Hunt for the Shadow Wolf makes clear why we must reconcile our relationship with this majestic animal before we can begin to bring it back to these lands. 'Gow has a fire in his belly. We need more like him.' BBC Wildlife Magazine

'One of the most remarkable figures in British conservation.' Observer'Gow reinvents what it means to be a guardian of the countryside.' Guardian'Courageous, visionary, funny.' Isabella Tree'A brilliant read.' Benedict Macdonald'He gets stuff done. . . . Highly entertaining but also a heartfelt plea for a wilder, more inspiring Britain.' Hugh Fearnley-WhittingstallBirds, Beasts and Bedlam recounts the adventures of Britain's favourite maverick rewilder, Derek Gow, and his single-minded mission to save our rarest wildlife - one species at a time. Author of Bringing Back the Beaver and Hunt for the Shadow Wolf, Derek shares his personal, courageous and highly entertaining tales in Birds, Beasts and Bedlam, including how he raised a sofa-loving wild boar piglet, transported a raging bison bull across the UK, got bitten by a Scottish wildcat and, together with Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell, restored the ancient white stork to the pioneering Knepp Estate. After a Shetland ewe captured his heart as a boy, Derek grew up to become a farmer with a passion for ancient breeds. When he realised how many of our species were close to extinction - even on his own land - Derek tore down fences literally and metaphorically, transforming his traditional Devon farm into a 300-acre rewilding haven for beavers, water voles, lynx, wildcats, harvest mice, wild boar and more. A project that is still ongoing today. Birds, Beasts and Bedlam continues the rich tradition of great British nature writing and is a natural bedfellow to Gerald Durrell's A Zoo in My Luggage. Passionate, subversive and unforgettable, Birds, Beasts and Bedlam will leave you imagining a rewilded landscape filled with our lost native birds and wildlife. 'A do-er, not a dreamer, Gow has become one of our most outspoken rewilders.' Countryfile Magazine'In this warm and funny autobiography, [Gow] writes with a whimsical fluency about the moments of humour and pathos in an unusual life.' Country Life

????? The Telegraph'Gow's book resists the generic conventions of modern nature writing; rambunctious and vivid, at times it feels as uncontrollably wild as its subject.' Helen Macdonald for The New Statesman'Beautifully crafted, fascinating and unbearably poignant, I totally loved this book.' Isabella Tree, author of WildingAuthor of Bringing Back the Beaver and Britain's favourite maverick rewilder Derek Gow embarks on an adventure to uncover the mythology, mystery and history of wolves in Britain. Derek Gow's dream is that one day we will see the return of the wolf to Britain. Wolf rewilding projects have been successfully implemented across the world - so what is holding us back in the UK?Hunt for the Shadow Wolf is Derek's quest to uncover the true nature of this magnificent creature. As Derek worked to reintroduce the beaver, he began to hear stories of the wolf, both real and mythical, and his fascination with it grew. He pieced together fragments of information, stories and artefacts to reveal a shadowy creature that first walked proud through these lands and then was hunted to extinction. What Derek came to realise was that the underlying motives behind our hatred were actually rooted in power and profit. We turned the wolf into a savage beast and saw its extirpation as a civilising mission. But the wolf endured and Derek tells of his sightings through folklore and mythology, the records of grand estates and parish churches as well as wolf heads, both real and recreated. With bitingly funny but also tender stories, Hunt for the Shadow Wolf makes clear why we must reconcile our relationship with this majestic animal before we can begin to bring it back to these lands. 'Gow has a fire in his belly. We need more like him.' BBC Wildlife Magazine

"'Gow reinvents what it means to be a guardian of the countryside.'-The Guardian 'Gow has a fire in his belly. We need more like him.'-BBC Wildlife magazine Birds, Beasts and Bedlam recounts the adventures of farmer-turned-rewilder Derek Gow, who is saving Britain's much-loved but dangerously threatened species, from the water vole to beaver, wildcat to white stork, and tree frog to glow worm. Derek tells us all about the realities of rewilding; how he reared delicate roe deer and a sofa-loving wild boar piglet, moved a raging bison bull across the country, got bitten by a Scottish wildcat, returned honking skeins of graylag geese to the land and water that was once theirs, and restored the white stork to the Knepp Estate with Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree. Derek's first book, Bringing Back the Beaver, was a riotously funny and subversive account of his single-handed reintroduction of the beaver in Britain. Birds, Beasts and Bedlam, a natural successor to Gerald Durrell's A Zoo in My Luggage, tells the story of Derek's rewilding journey and his work to save many more species by transforming his Devon farm into a wildlife breeding center. He now houses beavers, white storks, water voles, lynx, wildcats, and harvest mice, with the aim of releasing them into the wild one day. Tearing down fences literally and metaphorically, Derek Gow is the one person with the character and strength of will to defy authority, bend the rules-and save our wildlife. 'The radical rewilder.'-The Times 'Derek Gow wants his farm to be a breeding colony, a seedbed for a denuded island.'-The New Yorker"--

Bringing Back the Beaver is farmer-turned-ecologist Derek Gow's inspirational and often riotously funny firsthand account of how the movement to rewild the British landscape with beavers has become the single most dramatic and subversive nature conservation act of the modern era.