England

No-one comes close to Lewis-Stempel’s ability to paint the English landscape in words. Maddeningly brilliant.

Sally Coulthard, author of A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

Lewis-Stempel is the most splendid company as he stomps and meanders through England. He's congenial, lyrical, unsentimental and smart, with a rare eye both for the big picture and the tiny, telling detail. Marvellous!

Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild

The book I've been waiting for, by my favourite contemporary nature writer. John Lewis-Stempel is that rarest of breeds, a writer on nature who is fully immersed in the natural world. England is a treasure from start to finish.

Tristan Gooley

No other writer comes close to Stempel’s mixture of down-to-earth practical observation, playful lyricism, and sheer delight in the endless variety of our English countryside.

Christopher Somerville, author of Ships of Heaven and Walking the Bones of Britain

With charm, patient observation and the gift of beautiful words, John Lewis-Stempel braids history, science and folklore, revealing how English habitats have been formed by the interplay of nature and the human hand. England is a loving call to experience afresh the worlds-within-worlds on our doorstep.

[Prof.] Jonathan Drori [CBE] Author of Around the World in 80 Trees and Around the World in 80 Plants

It is rare indeed to find a writer who combines deep knowledge with such acute sensitivity to the power of words. England reads like a masterclass in how to look and listen – and it’s a wonderfully uplifting evocation of the treasures to be had if we attend to those things.

Edward Stourton, broadcaster and author of Confessions, Cruel Crossing and Auntie's War

England draws you into its folds and flow, into the streams, estuaries, and woodlands it evokes, with an almost incantatory power. It’s a book about nature, but also about the art of noticing, writing, precision, and cadence — from an author at the absolute height of his powers.

Sophy Roberts, author of Lost Pianos of Siberia

John Lewis-Stempel is simply the best. If England is truly to be the swansong of his extraordinary career (can somebody please, please ask him to reconsider?) then I cannot think of a more wonderful ending. It is lyrical, witty, companionable, knowledgeable, insightful, gripping, detailed, moving and beautiful. In short it is perfect nature writing from an undisputed master.

Tom Moorhouse, author of Elegy for a River and Ghosts in the Hedgerow

A richly enjoyable treasure trove for any nature lover. Gilbert White for the 21st century.

Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice

It is now expected of the modern nature writer to draw together landscape, wildlife, history and culture, but few – if any – do it as deftly as Lewis-Stempel does here … There is still a place for this kind of assured and expert countryside writing. Not just a place, but acres of room.

Richard Smythe, Times Literary Supplement

In an age when it seems that nothing has been left unscathed by our bulldozing technological advances, John Lewis-Stempel offers a breath of fresh (and natural) air.

The Times

BOOK OF THE MONTH: erudite and highly informative …packed with humorous, quirky details…a brilliant gift for anyone who loves the countryside.

Martin Chilton, The Independent

He combines Jefferies’s way of looking closely with W. H. Hudson’s wide-roaming curiosity. That he champions them and the likes of ‘BB’ and the Revd Gilbert White in these pages is no surprise. All of them, like the author, were true country souls. This is a book to sit on the shelf beside theirs and not be overshadowed.

Jack Watkins, Country Life

By our very finest nature writer ... a pastoral symphony, a masterpiece, and a very English love letter.

Christopher Hart, Daily Mail

Britain's finest nature writer

Boudicca Fox Leonard, Telegraph

What we have here is the best of John Lewis-Stempel and the best of his vision of England.

John Tulloch, The Tablet

This extraordinarily fine writer tours England with an eye for every living thing. A work of beauty, deeply informed, a fantastic gift.

Rose Shepherd, Saga

Full of evocative detail, this celebration of nature and place is bursting with historical details and lyrical observations of wildlife and landscape.

Countryfile magazine

In his distinctive lyrical prose the nation’s finest living nature writer explores the many different habitats to be found in the English countryside, and its rich diversity of flora and fauna. From bluebells to badgers and rock pools to beaches, all of England’s natural life is here – and exquisitely described.

Juanita Coulson, The Lady