Our Oaken Bones

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING

Scholarly, wise, funny, charming, terrifying and thrilling... I adored it all, every page. - JOANNA LUMLEY

An extraordinarily courageous, urgent and powerful book. - ISABELLA TREE

Deeply compelling... emotional, informative, pleasurable. I believe that this is an important work with planet-sized dreams and ambitions. Perhaps the greatest philosophy or teachable lesson that came to me off the page is that dominion comes with responsibility. - RUSSELL CROWE

A beautifully written, people-focused tale with many stories of the healing of troubled human souls brought about by the rainforest’s health-giving powers. I absolutely loved it. - CHARLES CLOVER

Aching and hopeful in equal measure: from the horrors and trauma of war, to the quiet intimate grieving of a hidden family loss, there are perhaps no greater tests of the healing power of Britain’s lost rainforest habitats. - GILLIAN BURKE

A terrific debut. - JUSTIN MAROZZI

Suffering after several military tours in Afghanistan and the pain of deeply personal losses, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife Lizzie decide to leave the bustle of London and return to Merlin’s childhood home, a Cornish hill farm in the heart of Bodmin Moor. As they fall more in love with the rainforest that Merlin had played in as a child, so begins a fight to save not only themselves and their farm, but also one of the world’s most endangered habitats.

Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, Our Oaken Bones is beautifully written and emotionally rich story of renewal, the astonishing healing power of nature, and our duty to heal it in return.