ReadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2025

Renaturing

Small Ways to Wild the World

James Canton author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Canongate Books

Publishing:12th Mar '26

£10.99

This title is due to be published on 12th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Renaturing cover

'Hearty and hopeful' ALICE VINCENT
'Profoundly uplifting' BEN GOLDSMITH
'Thoughtful and insightful' NEIL ANSELL

When James Canton moved to a farm labourer's cottage, he knew that the two-acre patch of earth behind it held potential as a place for nature to return and flourish. While 'rewilding' requires vast landscapes to become self-sustaining, he wondered what might be possible on the scale of his field - or even that of a garden or a window box.

Renaturing is the story of how he learned to dig a pond, forge meadowlands, create habitats for birds and insects and encourage plants that support wildlife. Gradually, what was once just a grassy space was buzzing with life. The process revealed that rather than rewilding, we could all 'renature': even on the smallest scale we can create habitats to support diverse ecosystems. Above all, it shows how we can all make positive change, however large or small, in caring for and restoring the natural world.

A wry and open-minded interrogation of human interventions in the landscape -- RICHARD MABEY
A timely and urgent message made warm and accessible; in Renaturing Canton tells us that bringing back nature in any and all places is the best way to fix the biggest challenges of our time. This is a profoundly uplifting and empowering book -- BEN GOLDSMITH
A charming account of one man's decision to get his hands dirty and try to play his own small part in trying to make the world a better place. Thoughtful and insightful -- NEIL ANSELL
What James Canton promises is something hearty and hopeful: a clear-eyed way forward for the outside world and those who live in it, beyond the binaries of the rewilding debate and into an inspiring demonstration of how we can make a difference -- ALICE VINCENT
A balm for any nature-lover, Renaturing provides a meditative, practical and beautifully-observed account of restoring a small yet significant patch of land. Canton takes us with him on a journey of learning that offers plenty to any reader, whether steeped in the lore of rewilding and ecology or a newcomer curious to know more -- CHANTAL LYONS
It's impossible to feel what we should about the gigantic problems of our age: climate change, mass extinction, and so on. They are too big, and we are too small and too tired. But James Canton shows us a way to feel properly again when we look at the wild world - by looking quietly and closely at the wilderness on our doorsteps and in ourselves. A tender and important manual of intimacy and revolution -- CHARLES FOSTER
Renaturing presents an important, heartfelt message that there are things that we can all do to improve the current and evermore concerning state of nature. It is a book appealingly relatable in its content and deeply encouraging in its outlook. Enjoyable start to finish -- MATT COLLINS
A lovely, meditative, quietly inspiring book. There is a haikulike quality to the writing, in the focus it brings to the seasonal tasks of attending to a meadow - scarifying, sowing, scything - and the way these tasks resonate, reach out to a wider community of people caring for nature with the same diligence and love as Canton -- JAMES MACDONALD LOCKHART
Canton's physical energy and activity in the field are matched by his intellectual energy as he sets out to understand the various new terms around 'rewilding' . . . [He] daily forges new ideas as well as actual pathways through the meadow, the rewards outweigh the aching bones and thorn-torn shirts and skin * * Hortus * *
If you too own a patch of earth, from a windowsill box and up, then this book is a must. It is simply told yet so powerful and thought-provoking. Renaturing is an inspiring and pleasurable read, full of love for our natural world. Highly recommended * * LoveReading * *

ISBN: 9781837261116

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

256 pages

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