The Lie of the Land cover art

The Lie of the Land

Who Really Cares for the Countryside?

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The Lie of the Land

By: Guy Shrubsole
Narrated by: Guy Shrubsole
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About this listen

WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION 2025

A WATERSTONES AND GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2024

'Both dynamite and medicine' AMY-JANE BEER

'Timely and rousing' THE TIMES

________________________________

The lie of the land: that Britain’s landowners care for the countryside.

Our landowning elite are paid billions of taxpayer pounds to be good stewards. But these same landowners have carelessly trampled over our best-loved landscapes, leaving the rivers polluted, fenlands drained, and moorlands burned.

Guy Shrubsole has travelled across Britain to expose the lie and meet the communities fighting back to restore our lost landscapes. This is a bold, shared vision for our nation’s wild places, and how we can treat them with the awe and care they deserve.

*Guy Shrubsole's The Lost Rainforests of Britain was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2023-04-30*

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS*

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE UNWIN AWARD*

©2024 Guy Shrubsole (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
Ecosystems & Habitats Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Politics & Government Rural Science Sociology

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Critic reviews

'A very, very good book' John Harris, The Guardian

'A fascinating exposé' The i

'Urgent and essential' Caroline Lucas

'Exhilarating, insightful and bristling with rightful indignation' Lee Schofield

'The unjust impositions of historic land ownership blight all our lives – here Guy shows why’ Chris Packham

'What a book! Vitally important, and superbly written' Aaron Bastani

‘Shrubsole has the belly fire of a campaigner but the precision of an historian’ Roger Mortlock

‘A heartfelt, historically resonant call to reject the myth that private landownership delivers good stewardship of nature' Corinne Fowler

A smart, peaceful and practical plan for how we can turn this land into our land’ Patrick Barkham

‘If you care about our environment, read this book’ Sir John Lawton CBE FRS

‘This book beautifully subverts the central orthodoxy of England’ Nick Hayes

'This is Guy Shrubsole’s best book yet' Mark Avery

'Compellinga timely and important book’ Geographical Magazine

'Genuinely jaw-dropping … bristling with energy and ideas' Martha Dillon

‘Guy Shrubsole asserts the right of the majority to engage in what happens to land. As England struggles with its post-Brexit identity, the lie of the land matters deeply’ Tim Lang

‘At once shocking and comforting, scathing and uplifting. A book on this subject shouldn't be so readable. A triumph’ Sophie Pavelle

‘His articulate fervour, seasoned with humour, shouts from every page. He throws down a timely gauntlet to centuries of tradition’ Tom Heap

Extraordinary. An affirmation of another kind of rural life that exists within this lie, and all the possibilities that are open to us if we defy it’ Nicola Chester

A rousing call to action’ Claire Ratinon

'Radical and urgent, measured and considered … an essential place to start’ Dr Rose O’Neill, Chief Executive, Campaign for National Parks

All stars
Most relevant
Guy succinctly describes the environmental problems with the British countryside and the historical context and offers ways we can change the status quo. He does not mince his words or shy away from contentious issues.

If you care about the nature read this book

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Please can the current Environment Minister and the rest of Westminster read this book please!!! What a fantastic guide to how and what we need to do to recover the natural environment in the UK!

Fantastic education of English land

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Very interesting and well written book on a important topic and certainly worth a read. The issue is the author, Guy Shrubsole, reading the book. On the whole he reads it well however, his insistence on using ( very poor) accents when reading quotes are so bad and are borderline offensive. There’s is no need for them, they add nothing, are smugly performed and on some of the longer monologues incredible irritating (there where a few chapters that I nearly stopped listening all together because of them). Shame as it’s a bloody good book. Whoever produced/directed this audiobook needs a kick for not making Guy redo a chapter after his first generic Scottish accent came out.

Well written poorly performed

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What a fantastic summary of a lot that is wrong with England's current state of land ownership, nature and carbon offsetting.

If you only read one book this year

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Great information and suggestions about the current state of affairs of land ownership and how it could change. Also shows how some, but not all, landowners should be ashamed and a call that it is time that they should be held to account. Fingers crossed.

Great and annoying at the same time

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