Forestland

A father, who has dedicated his life to the woods, plants his final tree, in this moving exploration of forests and the people who care for them – from the author of Wainwright Prize-shortlisted Rural.

Rebecca Smith's father was a forester, and her grandfather before him. Now he has dementia and is planting his last wood, laying down trees that will long outlive him and all of us reading this. As her Dad forgets the details of his life, he still remembers the forest.

Starting out with her father on his last planting, Smith set out on a journey deep into forestland. She met the unsung men and women whose harvest sustains us all, from our homes to our factories: tree planters, storm scientists, sawmillers, ecologists, professors and many more. And she travelled far from the Cumbrian woods of her childhood to Scottish estates, German forest universities and small Swedish family farms, to find out how we can nurture and protect our trees in the years to come.

Time passes differently in the forest. The trees we’re felling now were grown generations ago, when loggers still worked with horses, and the trees we’re planting now will shelter our grandchildren in an unrecognisable climate. In the face of these great changes, all we can do is learn from those who came before.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR RURAL:

‘Eye-opening and persuasive… effective and affecting. Smith is trying to understand what it means to work on the land but not own it' Sunday Times

‘A brilliant book about another side of working-class life, not a tower block in sight. Clever and honest, tackling slavery, loss and aspiration with humour and candour. I loved it’ Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon

‘Intelligent, multifaceted… revealing parts of society that are too often simply forgotten' Independent

‘A thoughtful, moving, honest book that questions what it means to belong to a place when it can never belong to you … Timely and illuminating’ Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment

‘Rural sets out to identify some of the huge and near-invisible changes to rural life… should be considered by anyone with an interest in the future of the British countryside' Country Life

‘Rural tenderly reveals the precarious lives that underpin the beauty and the wealth of our countryside. Essential reading for lovers of the land and its people’

Katherine May, author of Wintering

About the author

Rebecca Smith is a non-fiction author and journalist from Cumbria. Her critically acclaimed debut Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2024. She worked for BBC Radio for over a decade producing a variety of programmes including news and features and has written for the New York Times, Guardian and Sunday Times. She has a Masters in Creative Writing at Glasgow University and now lives in Central Scotland with her three kids and partner.