Love, hope and ruin

In her new book, Nicola Chester chronicles a lifetime of joy in nature alongside unbearable losses to our wild world that she has witnessed, and that we must all fight harder to prevent

- Nicola Chester

I am 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, On Gallows Down, Place, Protest and Belonging, 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 more than ever now, not to consider it in everything we do is to continue sawing off the branch we are sitting on. But also, as wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend (and all the other things we are), my very best memories and experiences with these relationships, these people, have happened in nature.