Author: Gow, Derek

United Kingdom, Great Britain

Published on 12 September 2024 by Chelsea Green Publishing UK in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 208 pages, Black-and-white illustrations throughout
198 x 128 x 17 | 190g

¡®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 ¨C 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 ¨C even on his own land ¨C 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