In Conversation

Merlin Hanbury-Tenison

‘I lie on the rock to let my limbs dry after my immersion in the river.

My bones warm. I have no towel but the moss is grateful for the additional moisture that I bring as the water runs off me and into its spongy web of roots and branches. I look up through the canopy and time freezes as the oak leaves drift gently backwards and forwards, dappling the light as it falls onto my body.

I am home.’

Reeling from the pain of devastating miscarriages and suffering from PTSD after military adventures in Afghanistan, Merlin and his wife Lizzie decide to leave London and return to Merlin’s childhood home, a Cornish hill farm. There, they are met by unexpected challenges: a farm slipping ever further into debt, the discovery that the damaged woods of the valley are one of the UK’s last remaining fragments of Atlantic temperate rainforest, and the sudden, near catastrophic strickening by Covid of Merlin’s father, explorer Robin. As they fall more in love with the rainforest that Merlin had adventured in as a child, so begins a fight to save themselves, their farm, and one of the world’s most endangered habitats.

Where ‘Wilding’ went before, this book will inspire and encourage. Immerse yourselves in Britain’s precious rainforests and the healing powers of nature, as Merlin recounts his experiences. His hope is that together we can return the gifts nature offers and heal these precious ecosystems.

Event hosted by the Edge of the World Bookshop.

An enormously moving and inspiring story about war, trauma, nature and rebirth, written with infectious passion and unsparing honesty. I loved it. – DOMINIC SANDBROOK

Scholarly, wise, funny, charming, terrifying and thrilling…I adored it all, every page. – JOANNA LUMLEY

Deeply compelling…emotional, informative, pleasurable… an important work with planet-sized dreams and ambitions. Perhaps the greatest philosophy or teachable lesson that came to me off the page is that dominion comes with responsibility. – RUSSELL CROWE