The Wild Life

Walking around his Hereford shire farm one October, John Lewis-Stempel saw a trout flash in the brook, mushrooms sprinkle the fields, a squirrel eat hazelnuts, and thought: Wouldn't it be wonderful if one could live just on what Nature provided for free?"The Wild Life" is John's account of twelve months eating only food shot, caught or foraged from the fields, hedges, copse and brook of his forty-acre farm. Nothing from a shop and nothing raised from agriculture. Could it even be done? We witness the season-by-season drama as the author survives on Nature's larder, trains Edith, a reluctant gun dog, and conjures new recipes. And, above all, we see him get closer to Nature. Because, after all, you're never closer to Nature than when you're trying to kill it or pick it. John takes the reader on a Thoreau-esque journey through a landscape that is true England as he uncovers the ancient past of his five-hundred-year-old farm and the startling symmetries between his life now and that of the farm's peasant founders. Lyrical, observant and sometimes mordantly funny, "The Wild Life" is an extraordinary celebration of our natural heritage. And a testament to the importance of getting back to one's roots - spiritually and practically.