Orchard: A Year in Englands Eden

(Paperback)

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Description

By the Wainwright-Conservation-Prize-winning author of Rebirding

Spend a year in an orchard, celebrating its imperilled, overlooked abundance of life.
England's ancient orchards, collaborations between people and nature, are sources of hope for the future. Protecting them promises a far richer England for the centuries to come, for wildlife and for us.

As the seasons turn, a wealth of animals and plants are revealed: Bumble and solitary bees apartment-hunting in April; spotted flycatchers migrating in May; redstarts, hedgehogs and owls nesting in June; an explosion of life in the summer and the harvest and homespun cider-making in the autumn. And all throughout the year, the orchards human and animal inhabitants work together, creating one of the richest ecosystems left in Britain.

Explore this unique habitat throughout the course of a year, and marvel at the beauty and strength of nature.

Reviews

Praise for Orchard

Enchanting Daily Mail

Vivid [and] full of unexpected revelations Orchard has much to offer in its observations of wildlife John Carey, Sunday Times

A wonderful new book from Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates, veterans of the BBCsSpringwatchseries moves lyrically and vividly through one calendar year in an old Herefordshire orchard Particularly moving New Statesman

From spores to sparrowhawks, there is never a dull moment. Lyrically written, Orchard isa love-letter to its jumbled magical chaos and a shining example of the things that can be achieved when humans come to work in balance and in harmony with nature BBC Wildlife

From slug-hunting toads and snuffling hedgehogs to percussion-playing spiders, woodpecker architects and zombie hoverflies, this wonderful book weaves together fascinating stories of the wildlife that lives in an old organic orchard Excellent I would recommend Orchard wholeheartedly Kathy Bishop, The Seasonal Table, Countryfile magazine

This book looks at an ancient English orchard throughout the course of a year, focusing on the wide range of wildlife that it supports writing with a lyrical richness that beautifully evokes this unique setting The result is a book that can be enjoyed on a lot of different levels from professional conservationists, to the most casual of everyday birdwatchers. Passionate and moving, this is highly recommended Birdwatch magazine

A rich and textured account of a year in this neglected habitat Stephen Moss

Enjoy this precious habitat and all its glories via this coffee-table worthy book that offers food for thought RSPB magazine

This beautiful exploration of natural history is an elegy for a disappearing way of life captivating The Garden magazine

Author Bio

Benedict Macdonald is a conservation writer, field director in wildlife television and a keen naturalist; passionate about restoring Britain's wildlife. He is a long-time writer for Birdwatching magazine, as well as a contributor to the RSPB Nature's Home and BBC Wildlife. He has been fortunate to work on TV series for the BBC and Netflix - most notably the grasslands and jungles programmes of Sir David Attenborough's conservation series Our Planet: broadcast worldwide on Netflix in April 2019.