Nature writer Nic Wilson, in conversation with Jon Woolcott. Nic Wilson is a writer, editor and Guardian Country Diarist based in North Hertfordshire. She has nearly 30 years writing experience spanning academia, education, journalism and narrative non-fiction. She works for BBC Gardeners World Magazine, mainly specialising in wildlife and wild plants. Her writing has featured in many magazines, journals and anthologies. When Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realises her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness. Now in her forties, and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness - past and present - and learn to reach for steady ground?With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life. This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

Britain is an island of countless green and pleasant spaces but who actually gets to visit them, how many of them can we visit, and why does having access to them matter so much? In January 2023 the largest UK land access demonstration since the 1930s took place on Dartmoor. Those who spearheaded the protest want open access to all of rural Britain. They believe that access will help nature by allowing the public to hold landowners and farmers to account and they argue that it will have no impact on wildlife. There are plenty of people who disagree but where does the truth lie? Are those on the other side of the debate, the farmers, conservationists and landowners who worry about public access, simply misguided? And how much access actually is there? Are we really locked out of the countryside, as some claim, or not? In Uncommon Ground, Patrick Galbraith unpacks the debate, taking us on an extraordinary investigative tour of rural Britain to uncover the truth, melding history, politics and polemic in a journey that takes us from the Western Isles to Dorset, and from the Anglo Saxon period right through to the present day. Were things really all that utopian before the Normans arrived or is that merely a fantasy? In his, much-celebrated style, Galbraith seeks out the quieter voices, voices that are less listened to and yet are actually often closer to the issues at hand. He also seeks to understand why access to the land matters and how our relationship with the land is integral to British culture. He heads out with poachers, meets landowners and foxhunters, he wanders naked with naturists, and he spends time with activists calling for a total abolition of the right to own land. He also interviews politicians, historians, and conservationists, many of whom have mixed feelings about the contemporary access campaign. In Scotland he discovers the reality of the open access policy, where a right to roam has been introduced and where almost-extinct birds like the capercaillie are suffering because of public access, not to mention the introduction of no-camping zones to combat the destruction of beauty spots. What would happen if England followed Scotlands lead? Ultimately, Uncommon Ground makes it clear that opportunities to engage with nature and the countryside are too few but it also acknowledges how harmful humans can be. It seems that it isnt to do with people being locked out of the countryside. Instead there are quieter and more complex issues at play to do with diversity, education, prejudice, and even transport. Uncommon Ground is an urgent call for more opportunities to engage with land, but it is also argues that some places should be out of bounds and should be left for nature to flourish . After all, humans are but one species of many on this small island. Its time to set the record straight and rethink our relationship with the countryside. Patrick Galbraith was born in Scotland in 1993. His writing has appeared in The Observer, The Spectator, The Times and The Telegraph. He was editor of Shooting Times for seven years. He is now a columnist for Country Life and The Critic. Currently, he works as a commissioning editor at the independent publisher, Unbound, where he also runs Unbounds literary magazine, Boundless. His non-fiction debut, In Search of One Last Song, was called the most important book on the countryside in years. This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

A WILDING YEAR is an impassioned and personal illustrated journal of a year during the ambitious rewilding project that Hannah and her husband have undertaken on their 300 acre farm in North Lincolnshire (www.wildwrendale.co.uk). After inheriting the farm in 2015 from her husbands father and going through four years of unproductive arable farming due to poor soil, they came to the conclusion it was the perfect candidate for rewilding to restore ecosystems to the point that nature can take care of itself. In the summer of 2019 they took their final harvest and that autumn stood back to let the land do what it wanted to and watch what happened. They were looking for the land to express its own character and start the process of healing itself. Hannah recounts the remarkable and exciting changes, together with the struggles, the farm undergoes as natural processes are allowed to return, creating a mosaic of opportunities for wildlife. The abundance of flora and fauna are captured by Hannahs enchanting sketches and illustrations of skylarks, hobbies, short eared owls, goldcrests, hedgehogs, polecats, hares, meadow brown butterflies, emperor dragonflies, hawk moths, bats, roe deer, woodcock, snipe, marsh orchids and ink cap and beef steak fungi, spectacularly bringing to life the beauty and power of nature in every season. Pre-order a book or buy one on the night to receive a complimentary gift bag of Hannah's stationery and gifts. Hannah Dale runs Wrendale Designs, a stationery and gift design company which specializes in endearing illustrations depicting British wildlife, which she founded in 2012. Hannah grew up in the countryside of rural Lincolnshire which has always inspired her watercolour illustrations. Studying art at school before reading zoology at Cambridge, she went on to work as a stockbroker in London for four years before returning to Lincolnshire to find an outlet for her artistic roots and passion for ecology and conservation. This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

Natural Connection is a lyrical, deeply researched and original work of narrative non-fiction by University of Cambridge AI, environmental justice and bioacoustics researcher and educator Joycelyn Longdon. Natural Connection reclaims the importance of awe for the natural world and reveals how marginalised communities and ancient wisdom can help us create a sustainable mindset and future for generations to come. When considering environmental action, many of us view ourselves through the binary of activist or observer. But as Longdon shows, there are many paths to drive positive change, and embracing rage, imagination, innovation, theory, healing and care as outlooks can fuel the wider movement. Rooted in Longdons cutting-edge research and featuring contributions from key voices such as Robert Macfarlane, Miranda Lowe, Katherine May and Rebecca Solnit, this is an invitation to approach environmental action as a shared goal rather than an individual burden. Natural Connection celebrates the histories and extraordinary acts of ordinary people who have paved the way for todays environmental movement, such as the Chipko women of India the original tree huggers, who pioneered direct action in their communities to combat deforestation and Nigerias Ogoni 9, who fought the threat of fossil fuel extraction in the Delta region. Bringing together stories and inspiration from marginalised people from the US to the UK, Brazil to Iran, Ghana to Ethiopia, this book roots us in our intrinsic connection with the natural world, celebrating the power of community. This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

In the summer of 2000, Julian Hoffman and his wife Julia found themselves disillusioned with city life. Overwhelmed by long commutes, they stumbled upon a book about Prespa, Greece - a remote corner of Europe filled with stone villages, snow-capped mountains and wildlife. What began as curiosity soon transformed into a life-changing decision: to make Prespa their home. Prespa is a crossroads. A place of mountains and lakes shared by three countries: Greece, Albania and North Macedonia, where limestone collides with granite and heat-pulsing Mediterranean ecosystems meet their colder, Balkan relatives. Here, languages, wartime histories and rivers converge, and pelicans, bears and people leave their footprints on the waters edge next to unexploded bombs. Lifelines is not only the tale of a courageous leap into a new life, but of seasons punctuated by unforgettable encounters, from a stare-down with a bear surrounded by spring wildflowers to a deep-winter meeting with fourteen wrens sheltering above a frozen doorway. And into this place encircled by mountains, Julian seamlessly weaves an intricate web of stories of conflict and possibility; of refuge lost and found; of the wild lifelines that connect us all as we move through the world seeking a home. Julian Hoffman is one of our most thoughtful and interesting writers on the natural world. He is the author of two previous books, Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save our Wild Places (Highly Commended Finalist for the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation 2020; Royal Geographical Society Book of the Year 2020; shortlisted for ASLE UK Book Prize for Literature and Environment 2021) and The Small Heart of Things (Winner of both the 2012 AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction and the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature, as well as being a finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year in Ecology and Environment and the ASLE Book Award for Literature and Environment). This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

Nature Needs You [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/8995/9781783968688] tells the compelling story of how Hannah set out to save swifts from extinction in the UK. She launched her campaign from scratch, employing radical tactics to try to change the law and make swift bricks mandatory to ensure that the birds who share our walls have a future in Britain. At stake, with a decline in numbers of over 60% since 1995, are the birds that have become our symbol of summer, screaming in the skies above us. Steeped in love for the wild, Nature Needs You is a clarion call to save the nature on our doorsteps and to prove that passion can be a superpower in bringing change to nature-depleted Britain. Hannah Bourne-Taylor is a conservationist, bird lover and author of the acclaimed nature memoir Fledgling [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/8995/9780711266681] (2022). An award-winning nature campaigner, named on the Ends Report Green Policymaking 2024 Power List, Hannahs mission to save swifts has been backed by the RSBP, conservationists from Chris Packham to George Monbiot, politicians including Zac Goldsmith and Caroline Lucas and local swift groups nationwide.

Twenty years ago Peter Hahn had a breakdown while in the back of a London taxi. Emotionally exhausted by his corporate life, he no longer recognised himself, but knew he had to find a path out. Since then Peter has found his way to Le Clos de la Meslerie, a small ancient farm in the Loire Valley, where he grows and makes small-batch organic wines. Angels in the Cellar invites us to spend a year in Peter's company among the vines, where he reflects on the land, his life, regenerative farming and the lives of the small group of people he works with. We join Peter through each season, pruning the wines and harvesting the grapes by hand, before we follow him to the wine cellar, where the alchemy begins - and the angels take charge. An evocative, poetic account of a year spent working with nature, Angels in the Cellar is also a powerful repudiation of the global economy, its obsession with hyper-consumption and its impacts on the land and its ecosystems. Peter Hahn grew up in Australia and Asia, and for two decades has been a winegrower at Le Clos de la Meslerie, a small vineyard in the Loire Valley, rarely leaving it, growing grapes and making organic wine. He is married and has three children. This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

Teasels is a richly poetic, ecofeminist almanac considering the process of aging and themes of belonging, published by Hazel Press. I have a hunch that teasels are canny and capable of all kinds of magical things. Things that cannot be known from simply passing them by in the wild. This is why I want you in my garden. To see your wildness, your tiny things. To zoom into your miniscule worlds, to witness your incremental cellular changes as you urge into and out of the world. I shall be your witness. Gathering clues about you like a hybrid, a private detective, scientist, lover. I want to learn what it is to be plant. To be alive and willed and waning. In the summer of 2023, Sam Francis began keeping a diary about the teasels growing in her garden, closely observing their growth from seedling to maturity and then senescence. The result was this deeply considered and moving testament to the entanglement of plants, people and environment. Sam is a North Somerset-based artist and edgeland naturalist who seeks to work in dialogue with non-human life forms. Her work explores themes of aloneness and the female body, often set within the landscape. Her previous pieces include her project on nettles for East Quay arts centre [https://www.eastquaywatchet.co.uk/articles/coming-soon-people-came-for-tea-and-stayed-forever] in Watchet, and featured byCaught by the River [https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2024/06/grasping-the-nettle-sam-francis-nettlecombe/]. Hazel Press is an independent publisher focusing on the environment, the realities of the climate crisis, feminism and the arts. Our titles are all printed in the UK using pioneering eco-print processes and materials. See www.hazelpress.co.uk [//www.hazelpress.co.uk] This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

Priority given to existing book club members. Any spare spaces will be released to the waiting list. Our pick for May isUlverton by Adam Thorpe [https://www.foldedorset.com/product/ulverton-by-adam-thorpe/3068?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true]. It's a story spanning three hundred years across different voices, centred round one village Ulverton. You dont have to buy the book from us but well offer you a 10% discount if you sign up to Book Club (in real life or on Facebook). You can also buy it from your favourite local indie orBookshop.org [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ulverton-adam-thorpe/4466528?ean=9780099573449], or order it from your local library, but, if you can possibly afford not to, please dont buy it from Amzon and do your bit to help indie bookshops to thrive. Book Club places are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If it's showing as fully booked, please join the waiting list and well offer you first dibs on any cancellations. Alternatively, you can join our Book Club Facebook Group and join in the discussions online. The discount code will be in your booking confirmation, and pinned to the top of the FOLDE Book Club Facebook Group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/foldebookclub], which you'll be able to see once you've been approved as a member.

In Tree Hunting , Paul Wood seeks out the best individual trees the most charismatic, quirky or downright spectacular that grow in Britain and Irelands towns, cities and villages (and, in one case, from the crack in a church steeple). From a stumpy sycamore in Shetland, contorted by wind and hard weather, to the shining jewel in Brightons unlikely treasure trove of elms, Paul travels on a quest from north to south rooting out the legends and tall tales behind these marvellous specimens. As he delves into this rich ecosystem, he reveals how trees are inextricably bound to the story of our towns and cities: they have always meant a great deal to those that live near them, and they continue to shape the fabric of urban life in deep, and often surprising ways. We are delighted that Paul will be giving an illustrated talk to help us all unlock the secrets of Britain and Irelands urban forests. A constant explorer of cities and the irrepressible, boisterous nature they support, Paul Wood is the author of several books, including London is a Forest. He has been fascinated by trees ever since he noticed a beech seedling unfurling in his back garden as a child. He lives in London under the canopy of a pair of Victorian plane trees. This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

The award-winning author of Forget Me Not joins Jeni Bell in conversation about her new book, To Have or To Hold , a thrilling exploration of nature's symbiotic relationships, some comforting and familiar, others wildly alien. What can nature teach us about living together? Investigating eight symbiotic relationships trying to survive the climate and biodiversity crises, Sophie Pavelle explains why it has never been more vital for us to understand symbiosis. Symbiotic relationships regulate ecosystems, strengthen resilience and bind pivotal connections. Species living together in symbiosis is no accident these dynamics evolved. Species form and sever alliances everywhere, from deep within temperate rainforests to the open ocean, quiet tidal pools or chalk grasslands, and nature thrives on relationships as glamorous as they are grotesque and as bizarre as they are engrossing. In To Have or To Hold , Sophie relishes the interconnectedness between species and celebrates the relationships that underpin natural environments. Low-carbon travelling around the British Isles, she presents nature's frauds, fortune-tellers, misfits and cheaters. The natural world is built on parasitism, a cunning blend of bargaining and exploitation in the name of survival. In our relationship with the natural world, are we the parasites? Will we continue to exploit nature's resources? Or will we vow to love and cherish what remains shaping a more restorative life alongside nature till death us do part? Sophie Pavelle is a US-born and UK-based science communicator. She worked for Beaver Trust and presented their award-winning documentary Beavers Without Borders. She is an Ambassador for The Wildlife Trusts and sat on the RSPB England Advisory Committee. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, National Geographic Traveller, New Scientist, The Independent and BBC magazines. Her first book, Forget Me Not, was widely praised for encouraging action against climate change and biodiversity loss. This event is brought to you byFOLDE Dorset [http://www.foldedorset.com]in partnership with theGrosvenor Arms [https://grosvenorarms.co.uk/]. If you dine at the Grosvenor on the day of this talk, you'll receive 10% off your food bill on presentation of your ticket. We strongly recommend booking in advance.