BBC Countryfile Magazine

Love, hope and ruin

Iam haunted by the loss of wildlife – single trees, 10,000 trees, wildflower meadows and their worlds, spotted flycatchers, lapwings – the loss of a last nightingale. And I am simultaneously enchanted, thrilled, utterly seduced and filled with hope by nature. It moves me as much as any human relationship – now there’s a confession. But when did it all begin to mean so much to me? And why?

It took writing a book, , to form a framework for the answer to these questions. Partly, nature means so much (and yes, as much as any human relationship) because the two are inseparable. We are nothing without nature because we are nature. And

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