What a mixed bag!

First, the (very) good: Gow's eloquent descriptions of landscape and of animal and plant life regenerating landscape. Though he's writing about British places, I was reminded of my childhood wanderings in the wooded places still remaining in northern New Jersey 60 years ago, and of the bird and insect life I took for granted then. So much of it is lost now, and my small attempts to make my dining-room-sized backyard hospitable to pollinators arise from the same impulse that makes Gow such a force in rewilding.

I mentioned this book to a friend, whose immediate response was "Is rewilding just something the British nobility do to show off their ancestral lands?" No, I said, and I wasn't wrong: indigenous-led rewilding is a thing, for example.

And yet, for someone dedicated to, literally, a world-saving cause, Gow is sometimes mind-bogglingly unreflective. I'll quote in full his description of a man named Mike Lockyer from whom he obtains European bison:

"... both physically and metaphorically a huge character with a vast waxed beard and moustache flowing out in fine Raleighian form. At the helm of an Elizabethan man-o’-war wielding a cutlass he would not have been out of place. Mike had caught herds of animals in Africa for the Chipperfields when their circus and safari park empire was at its zenith by jumping out of bouncing Land Rovers to grab and then bind them with ropes. He had supplied dart guns for Idi Amin’s personal firearms collection, bribed the widows of the Africans who died catching buffalo bulls with cornflakes to keep them silent, and generally seduced and caroused his way around the continent in a manner that would have left Sir Walter green with envy."

This cheery colonialism, this disregard for human and animal pain, this vileness is presented as if it were merely colorful. As if it had no moral implications. As though it weren't emblematic of the kind of "conservationism" that treats Native peoples and people of color as obstacles to a whites-only (and, by the way, male-only) enterprise.

Perhaps it's inevitable that someone whose life is entirely focused on the outer world would be unreflective; I noticed, too, that nothing that went wrong with any of Gow's projects seemed to be his fault.

And yet, and yet.

"We know little about the history of the small creatures that once lived alongside us because they were tiny and have left scant evidence of their being, and because for a very long time, we cared nothing much at all for wildlife unless it was big enough to hunt for fun or annoyed us by killing sheep."
...
"The wildcat did not only inhabit forests and these environments were not only solid stands of trees. There were the cleft rock faces of sea cliffs smashed by ice and rain with sun-kissed ledges under tight crannies where their kittens could bask. Full of rock doves and jackdaws and mice, where their old friend the rabbit to this day still mows. They were tall grass fields where voles scurried under and over ground through a jungle of fine flowering herbs. They were marshes where they could lie languid on branches overhanging in the dark of a day’s end, pools of warm water in a leisurely attempt to scoop unwary green frogs up and into their jaws. Great hollow trees standing ancient, spinneys of strong briar and gorse, heathlands with blowing bog cotton were once all their home."

I have to forgive a lot, for the sake of passages like those. Thanks to Chelsea Green and NetGalley for the ARC.

I found this book to be somewhat interesting. The author's passion is unquestionable, you can really get a sense of who he is. The information presented is interesting. It's the writing that I had a problem with. Rather wandering, somewhat chaotic. It really takes away from the experience.

Rated 3.75 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve had the author’s other book on my radar for a long time and couldn’t resist the opportunity to read this one. I absolutely loved reading how he created his own world of rewilding and reintroducing declining species. Well worth the read for any animal and nature lover.

DNF
Maybe Gow changed his ways over the years, but I had to stop reading this book because he's an animal murderer. Big disappointment. Also, unnecessary vulgarities throughout.

Pg. 18: "Farmers of all ages and attires, in clothes new and old, would lounge and lean." I'm not entirely sure why this sentence stuck with me. I think it was at this point onward that I really began to appreciate the charming rhythm of the author's writing style, and from there on, it was just such a delightful read.

I admire the almost blunt, yet practical, hands-on approach to the actions we need to take. I can never read enough about rewilding, and I truly cherish this addition to my collection on the subject.

On my "re-read and annotate"-list.

Big thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Birds, Beasts and Bedlam!

Enjoyable,and entertaining read about rewilding endeavours in the UK. The author’s writing style is enjoyable, captivating and illustrates beaurocratic nightmares for initiatives that seem entirely reasonable and sensible. Recommended. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

The language was a bit hard to decipher which made it difficult to follow. That being said, the conservation efforts, love, and concern for animals, their habitats, and our planet was abundantly clear. We need more people like this and more done to protect what we have...and what we have left.