A must read text book for anyone runnining or owning a rural destination or business. Chris is both entertaining and concise with his stories and observations, this made the book an easy read. This book left me with a deeper appreciation of Chris and Anne's quiet efforts to shed light on a greener and more sustainable way of living. -  Clive Collins SCOTEC Dip For

This book describes wild dreams and niggling realities with exactly the same acerbic, finely-detailed eye and I found it riveting. The dream was to live in a wood and make it pay; the realities included gales, workshy helpers, whittled profit margins and what seems to have been an exhausting daily grind. What I didn't find here, thank God, was any sense of regret. In fact, what I took from this beautifully insightful book was a vivid, fiercely accurate description of exactly how to live any kind of dream and keep your head above water and your motives more or less pure. It's sometimes grumpy (the Great British Public comes in for a bit of unfair slating), but never less than intriguing. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves trees, dreams and the intrigue of everyday getting-by. - Nicholas Roe

Chris Yarrow has a refreshingly light touch when he describes how the management of Wilderness Wood evolved. The book particularly excels in its account of the people involved. The narrative is full of entertaining stories about the Yarrow family, their fellow villagers, those who worked at the wood and the woodland visitors. These absorbing tales and anecdotes combine to create a very readable and wholly enjoyable book. - Richard Swann

This is a tremendous read. It is written with the wry wit and colourful flair of a true entertainer. We are drawn into a tale of a family's determined struggle to make a longed-for dream come true, and we cheer them on as they confront ignorance and bureaucracy and triumph despite it. We are exhausted by the vast amount of sheer hard work put into the loving restoration of a neglected wood and its transformation into a productive and fascinating place to be, and we rejoice in their weathering all the trials and tribulations to reach their goal. - Winnow Hardy

Chris Yarrow's excellent book can be enjoyed as a story of idealism tempered with the need to engage with the real world to make ideas work in practice. It is a tribute to the ability to think outside the box and to the value of sheer hard work. - Emlyn and Shirley Williams