Across a Waking Land

A veteran nature writer walks the length of Britain in pursuit of spring, and of hope for the natural world—from the author of Shearwater and Taking Stock

Fed up with bleak headlines of biodiversity loss, acclaimed nature writer Roger Morgan-Grenville sets out on a 1,000-mile walk through a British spring to see whether there are reasons to be hopeful about the natural world. His aim is to match the pace at which the oak leaves emerge, roughly 40 kilometers north each day.

Fighting illness, blizzards and his own aging body, he visits every main habitat between Lymington and Cape Wrath in an epic eight-week adventure, encountering, over and over again, the kindness of strangers and the inspiring efforts of those fighting heroically for nature.

A life-affirming—and life-changing—journey about the resilience of the natural world and how spring is changing across Europe.