To be published on 30th May 2013 by Allen Lane

This is what people have said so far about Feral:

Press Reviews

Philip Hoare in The Sunday Telegraph:

*****
“The book justifies its subtitle with rhapsodic descriptions of forays into the natural world. Whether kayaking off the British coast or walking the Kenyan bush, Monbiot – who studied zoology at Oxford – focuses our minds on what we have lost, and what we stand to gain. … as a passionate polemic, it could not be more rigorously researched, more elegantly delivered, or more timely. We need such big thinking for our own sakes and those of our children. Bring on the wolves and whales, I say, and, in the words of Maurice Sendak, let the wild rumpus start.”

Sam Leith in the Spectator:

“He’s a proper reporting journalist, he can write, and he stands for something — which puts him, these days, well ahead of most of our tribe. Plus, this peculiar and involving book — three-quarters exhilarating environmental manifesto, one quarter midlife crisis — has an enormous amount to recommend it … extraordinarily good and crunchy material … There’s a lot here to digest and think about, much to be excited by”.

Simon Barnes in The Times:

“His passion is for a wilder world, a world less circumscribed by fear and greed and the rapacity of minority interests. Such a world would benefit us all: make us all less like tourists on our own planet. And he’s right … The most important part of the book refreshes your view of the world and fills you with fury that people should have got away with such nonsense and for so long, against the wishes and the best interests of the wider population. The book is full of good things and good ideas … He can turn a paragraph as well as he can paddle a canoe, and he can savour a phrase as he savoured that beetle grub … as a shaker-up of accepted ideas – those of conservationists and those of people resistant to conservation – he has an important role to play and he plays it with élan.”

Frances Stonor Saunders in The Guardian:

“There’s nothing ignoble about Monbiot’s vision of reinstating ecosystems in which man’s power to dominate is consciously withheld. It is a vision fed by his growing disenchantment with the landscape that surrounds him in Wales, by the ‘hessian emptiness’ of the Cambrian Desert that lies at his doorstep, an area of 460 square miles that he learns to loathe as a vast tract of manmade ecological declension. … rewilding along the lines Monbiot advocates becomes an attractive proposal, a hopeful metaphor for something over nothing. He also makes a compelling case for other sizable protected areas in the UK, all ‘sheep-wrecked’, that might similarly be released from the ‘conservation prison’.”

Rob St John in The List:

“Monbiot’s writing is convincing and flecked with lyrical clarity. He deftly untangles and explains scientific concepts, tacking them to core emotional responses of ‘why’ the environment matters. … the depth and breadth of research that underpins this book is impressive. Coupled with the experiential and highly personal prose that weaves this constellation of concepts together, the result is highly persuasive.”

Other remarks

Thom Yorke:

“Feral has really opened my mind to the history and possibilities of our landscape.
It reflects a very real need in us all right now to be released from our claustrophobic monoculture and sense of powerlessness.
To break the straight lines into endless branches.
To free our land from its absent administrators.
To rewild both the landscape and ourselves.
It is the most positive and daring environmental book I have read.
In order to change our world you have to be able to see a better one. I think George has done that.”

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:

“Given that man has already reshaped the surface of the planet several times over, Monbiot has the intellectual temerity to suggest how we might do it better from here on in. And he throws down the gauntlet with great panache. As a species, he argues, we’ve made enough calamitous mistakes to learn from, and gathered enough experience and evidence down the ages to draw a new and challenging conclusion: huge swathes of wild places, on land and sea, teeming with life that is largely outside our influence, are necessary not just for the diversity of life on earth, but for the spiritual nourishment, perhaps even the social stability, of mankind. And we can create such magical, life-affirming places with a radical new environmental management plan: leaving them alone.

Part personal journal, part rigorous (and riveting) natural history, but above all unbridled vision for a less cowed, more self-willed planet, this is a book that will change the way you think about the natural world, and your place in it. Big, bold and beautifully written, his vision of a rewilded world is, well, truly captivating.”

David Suzuki:

“Human beings are altering the physical, chemical and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale and thereby undermining our life support systems of air, water, soil, photosynthesis and biodiversity. Drawing on a life of rich observation and experience, George Monbiot regales us with stories of life’s astonishing capacity for renewal and offers an uplifting and inspiring goal beyond the cessation of our destructive rampage, the restoration of the wild in nature and our own lives. Immersed in the gloom and doom of ecological destruction, environmentalists can find strength in nature’s capacity to be resilient and abundant if we give her a chance.”

Bill McKibben:

“The world knows George Monbiot mostly from his powerful and perceptive journalism. But this is a whole different order of writing and thinking, a primal account of an unstifled world.”

Brian Eno:

“George Monbiot is always original – both in the intelligence of his opinions and the depth and rigour of his research. In this unusual book  he presents a persuasive argument for a new future for the planet, one in which we consciously progress from just conserving nature to actively rebuilding it.”

Farley Mowat:

“George Monbiot’s new book, Feral, is a Book of Revelations for our times.”

Feral
Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding

‘The suburbs dream of violence. Asleep in their drowsy villas, sheltered by benevolent shopping malls, they wait patiently for the nightmares that will wake them into a more passionate world’ J. G. BALLARD

How many of us sometimes feel that we are scratching at the walls of this life, seeking to find our way into a wider space beyond? That our mild, polite existence sometimes seems to crush the breath out of us?

Feral is the lyrical and gripping story of George Monbiot’s efforts to re-engage with nature and discover a new way of living. He shows how, by restoring and rewilding our damaged ecosystems on land and at sea, we can bring wonder back into our lives.

Making use of some remarkable scientific discoveries, Feral lays out a new, positive environmentalism, in which nature is allowed to find its own way. From the seas of north Wales, where he kayaks among feeding frenzies of dolphins and seabirds, to the forests of Eastern Europe, where lynx stalk and packs of wolves roam, George Monbiot shows how rewilding could repair the living planet, creating ecosystems in post-industrial nations as profuse and captivating as any around the world. Already, large wild animals are beginning to spread back across Europe, and fin whales, humpback whales and bluefin tuna are returning to the seas around Britain.

Feral is a work of hope and of revelation; a wild and bewitching adventure that argues for a mass restoration of the natural world – and a powerful call for us to reclaim our own place in it.

‘I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core‘

WB Yeats
The Lake Isle of Innisfree

A new book by George Monbiot. Published April 2008 by Atlantic Books.

Reviews:

“George Monbiot makes one proud to be a journalist. His passion for social and ecological justice is undimmed by 21st-century cynicism. His desire for knowledge across the widest gamut of subjects (scientific, historical, political and cultural) enables him to reach places which are foreign territory to many of us. … Bring on the Apocalypse is a rich and abundant source of arguments for social progress.”

The Herald

“He is one of the best-informed dissenters on earth, a passionate environmentalist and campaigner for social justice, and a good old-fashioned journalist who can back up every argument with hard research.”

Irish Examiner

“Gorgeous and terrifying and inspiring … dense with learning but light to read, dramatically raise[s] your horizons.”

New Statesman

“He consistently questions some of our most basic assumptions, in a way that can both disturb and inspire. The writing is never less than clear and forceful, with a poetic sensibility that never wastes a word. When the occasion demands it, he can produce imagery as startling as anything in fiction.”

Venue

“He is a unique treasure – invariably writing good sense, using sane arguments in a fluent and engaging prose. He is supremely knowledgeable and passionate without becoming overemotional or hysterical.”

Morning Star

“The strength with which Monbiot puts his arguments has overshadowed his skill as a writer, which is considerable. You couldn’t wish for a more concise, entertaining – and unsettling – summary of the world’s most worrying trends.”

Western Daily Press

“Pity any man who tries an argument with George.”

The Diplomat

“Monbiot’s skill as a writer and thoroughness as a journalist always ensure that his arguments are worth hearing.”

The South Wales Argus

Heat has made a huge impact in hardback. The paperback edition contains new material, including devastating critiques of the Stern report, the climate change bill and George Bush’s claim to be leading the world in tackling climate change.

The Times says “I defy you to read this book and not feel motivated to change”.

Naomi Klein says “With a dazzling command of science and a relentless faith in people, George Monbiot writes about social change with his eyes wide open. I never miss reading him.”

Sir John Houghton, former head of the Met Office says “It is the best book I know that succintly presents stark facts coupled with a broad, balanced and practical perspective of the technical and political challenges ahead.”

Heat is launched alongside a new campaign to eliminate standby buttons. To find out about it, please see www.turnuptheheat.org, where you can also read exposures of corporate greenwash and climate change denial.

By George Monbiot. Published October 2006 by Allen Lane, Penguin Press.

We know that climate change is happening. We know that it could, if the worst predictions come true, destroy the conditions which make human life possible. Only one question is now worth asking: can it be stopped? In Heat, George Monbiot shows that it can.

For the first time, he demonstrates that we can achieve the necessary cut – a 90% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 – without bringing civilisation to an end. Combining his unique knowledge of campaigning and environmental science, he shows how we can transform our houses, our power and our transport systems. But he also shows that this can happen only with a massive programme of action which no government has yet been prepared to take.

His exciting, disturbing ideas expose the cowardice of our politicians. By showing that we can save the biosphere without losing our comfort and security, Monbiot sweeps away their perpetual excuse for doing nothing: that it would be too painful and expensive to sustain life on earth.

In every case, he supports his proposals with a rigorous investigation into what works, what doesn’t, how much it costs and what the problems might be. He wages war on bad ideas as energetically as he promotes good ones. He is not afraid to attack anyone – friend or foe – whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged. HEAT also contains a breath-taking new exposure of the corporations trying to stop us from taking action. Inspiring, original, burning with energy, this book could change the world.