On Gallows Down

"Part nature writing, part memoir, On Gallows Down is an essential, unforgettable read for fans of Helen Macdonald, Melissa Harrison and Isabella Tree. Nicola Chester won the BBC Wildlife Magazine's Nature Writer of the Year Award - this is her first book. The story of a life shaped by landscape; of an enduring love of nature and the fierce desire to protect it - living as part of the rural working class in a 'tied cottage' on a country estate - and what it takes to feel like you belong.

As a child, Nicola roamed the countryside, finding a sense of freedom, wildness and place in the outdoors, where nature and home were one and the same. As she grew up, she realised this world could be torn from her and destroyed, first in the shadow of the nuclear missiles at Greenham Common and then by the extinction of a centuries-old wood as a new road was forced through it. On Gallows Down is a book about hope - from the rewilding of Greenham Common after the missiles left to how, as a new mother, Nicola walked the chalk hills to give her children roots, teaching them names and waymarks to find their way home.

It is about the songs of the nightingale and cuckoo - whose return she waits for - the red kites, fieldfares, skylarks and lapwings that accompany her, the badger cubs she watches at night and the velvety mole she finds in her garden. And it is also the story of how Nicola came to write and to protest - unearthing the seam of resistance that ran through Newbury's past, from the Civil Wars to the Swing Riots and the women of the Greenham Common Peace Camps, and to the fight against the Newbury bypass. A resistance that continues today against the destruction of hedgerows, trees and wildlife through modern farm estate management. On Gallows Down is perfect for fans of H is for H...