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Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life

George Monbiot

4.17 · Rating details · 3,073 ratings · 396 reviews

How many of us sometimes feel that we are scratching at the walls of this life, seeking to find our way into a wider space beyond? That our mild, polite existence sometimes seems to crush the breath out of us? Feral is the lyrical and gripping story of George Monbiot's efforts to re-engage with nature and discover a new way of living. He shows how, by restoring and rewildi ...more

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Paperback, 336 pages

Published June 5th 2014 by Penguin (first published May 28th 2013)

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Aug 08, 2013 Zanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: environment, philosophy

I read Monbiot's book Heat, in which he sets out a plan of how the UK could and should repond to human-made climate change by cutting carbon emissions by 90%, in 2010. I was convinced, but not optimistic; the changes we need to make are radical; the restructuring in transport for example, would be deep, and despite the strength of the argument against doing so even I have failed to stop flying (I have restricted myself somewhat, but totally failed to persuade anyone else), which has become so in I read Monbiot's book Heat, in which he sets out a plan of how the UK could and should repond to human-made climate change by cutting carbon emissions by 90%, in 2010. I was convinced, but not optimistic; the changes we need to make are radical; the restructuring in transport for example, would be deep, and despite the strength of the argument against doing so even I have failed to stop flying (I have restricted myself somewhat, but totally failed to persuade anyone else), which has become so integral to working life and family together-time as we spread ourselves across the globe.

So when I took up Feral I wasn't expecting to find a carnival of hope and joy! There is no single narrative here; Monbiot alternates and weaves together anecdotes of his fishing expeditions, intense, dramatic and dense with description and encounters with wildlife and rural places, with discussions of progressive biodiversity loss and habitat destruction caused throughout our history by gratuitous hunting, agricultural practices and often bizarre regulation. He describes how ecosystems are kept healthy by large predators, and explores the potential for reintroducing animals such as lynx and even wolves to the UK, as well as less controversial animals like the beaver, a herbivore whose dam-building habits create opportunities for a variety of fish and all sorts of other fauna and flora to thrive. Some readers might wish Monbiot would cut to the chase but it's obviously important to him to share the sense of 'enchantment' and revitalisation that has informed his conception of 'rewilding'.

This rewilding is not a monolithic concept; it is being constructed differently by varied groups of advocates. Monbiot freely admits that, while he can make an impressive economic case, his real motivation is the yearning for reconnection and encounters with exciting ecosystems. He points out that sheep farming has left large areas of the UK biodiversity deserts, which without our intervention, would surprisingly be covered in rainforest, as diverse as the Brazilian Mata Atlantica of which it was once a part! He argues against the 'conservation prison'; the preservation of ecosystems that are actually severely depleted, having been created by historic farming practices and industrial processes. Do we really want our environment to be a museum? Monbiot wants to see areas of 'self-willed' land.

The effects of stepping back and letting nature recover are inspiring. Simply fencing out sheep for twenty years produces a startlingly rich and varied patch of woodland where previously nothing lived but grass. In the ocean, where the biodiversity disaster has been even more dramatic than on land due to destructive fishing practices and the misguided removal of predators, it is even easier to restore biodiversity and ecosystem health; simply by creating marine reserves. This is one example among many in the book of the need for nothing but political will to bring about a hugely beneficial (to the fishing industry and seafood-lovers as much as to wildlife) change at no or minimal cost and with no investment in technology or R & D. In the case of agricultural practice, one solution Monbiot advocates is the removal of a rule that forces farmers to work or graze land they would otherwise leave fallow. One of the more difficult problems is the vice-like grip of extremely wealthy landowners, often living overseas, who wield extremely disproportionate influence in government.

Monbiot is not naïve about the problems with rewilding areas of land. This is NOT a call for a return to ANY earlier stage of civilisation, to stop cultivation or reduce human populations. He balances his argument with chapters about his discussions with sheep farmers, and a cautionary discussion of the harrowing history of 'Nazi rewilding projects' that Simon Schama wrote about in Landscape and Memory. Monbiot also notes indefensible colonial 'conservation' projects, such as in Kenya, where imperial rulers have appropriated land from local people such as the Maasai, leaving them without homes or property, to create reserves.

On the other side of the argument is another example of colonial thinking; asking people in African and Asian countries to conserve dangerous animals such as big cats and rhinos sits ill with our unwillingness to tolerate predators on our own shores. The reintroduction of the wolf to Yellowstone in the USA is an incredible success story, and its slow reappearance in continental Europe is having similar effects, with many benefits to people.

Rewilding, Monbiot stresses, must be a democratic process, fully negotiated with all the stakeholders involved, but it has huge potential to enrich our land, seas and lives. Read and feel good!

***Update***
One issue in this book that has become especially topical is reasons why we now have far more flooding in the UK. Vegetation dramatically slows down run off into rivers and regulates transpiration, as well as preventing soil erosion. At one time government agencies removed fallen trees and so on from water courses to speed up the flow, and many wetlands have been drained to make way for more crops, inevitably speeding up the channels water flows in. How to prevent flooding: SLOW DOWN the movement of water. This also helps biodiversity ...more

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Jul 17, 2015 Jude Li-Berry rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: end-of-humanity

This is the most disappointing book I have read in the last few years. It's all the more disappointing because it sets up one's hope high: Feral, Rewilding the land, the sea, and human life -- such fascinating and pressing subjects, it's hard to imagine how can one can wrong. And Monbiot does, grossly. Recently I compared a somewhat discursive and repetitious production by E. O. Wilson to brilliant tooth-pickings of a great mind; in contrast, FERAL is sensationalized tooth-pickings of egocentris ...more

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Jul 15, 2013 Mark Avery rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a book that many people ought to read. I read most of it before I went to the USA and then read all of it, some of it several times, on my return. I was reading it again at 6am yesterday morning in the back garden of the Old Mill Hotel in Salisbury where a kingfisher, a juvenile robin and a loud wren distracted me.

I agree with the thrust of this book – which I believe is that we need more wild nature in our lives and that we ought to put it there through ‘rewilding’ some of the world aro ...more

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Jan 30, 2020 Tommye Turner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-read, nature-writing, climate-crisis

This book is about rewilding. The concept of rewilding is vague and has different meanings depending on who you talk to. George Monbiot does a wonderful job of both explaining what rewilding is to him, and all many other shades of definition that exist.

I was entranced by the visions of epic forests filled with lynx, wolves, and other wild animals. As a child I would escape into woods wherever I could find them and pretend that these animals might exist; now that I know they could, if enough peop This book is about rewilding. The concept of rewilding is vague and has different meanings depending on who you talk to. George Monbiot does a wonderful job of both explaining what rewilding is to him, and all many other shades of definition that exist.

I was entranced by the visions of epic forests filled with lynx, wolves, and other wild animals. As a child I would escape into woods wherever I could find them and pretend that these animals might exist; now that I know they could, if enough people shared the same vision, I have a tiny burst of hope that the wild might come back to our sculpted, sheepwrecked land.

Monbiot makes an important point on this topic of consent:

“Nevertheless, like all visions, rewilding must be constantly questioned and challenged. It should happen only with the consent and enthusiasm of those who work on the land. It must never be used as an instrument of expropriation or dispossession…”

He does then continue on to say that

“Rewilding, paradoxically, should take place for the benefit of people, to enhance the world in which we live, and not for the sake of an abstraction we call Nature.”

In each chapter, Monbiot depicts a different voyage, walk, exploration of the natural world. His writing style is lyrical and does a wonderful job of expressing how he feels about what he sees. For example, in his chapter named ‘Sheepwrecked’, the landscape is described as being in a state of destruction, and you can see how he is almost heartbroken by that.

No matter what side you believe you stand on when it comes to rewilding, this book is definitely something you should read. There is so much information from studies and interviews, carefully conveyed, that without that knowledge I don’t think either side can begin to discuss the topic with clarity. Having said that, I don’t think many people are on one side or the other: as always, most of us are somewhere in between. Even Monbiot has his moments (as in the chapter entitled ‘Hushings’) of doubt, or at least he is forced to think more about those who would be negatively affected by huge amounts of rewilding.

This is an incredible book. Dreams of truly wild flora and fauna thriving on landscape that was once in a state of destruction will stay with me forever. ...more

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Jan 19, 2014 Anna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, environment, climate-change

I found this book wholly delightful. It contains a mixture of adventures Monbiot has had in the wilder parts of the world and well-reasoned arguments for allowing more of the world to be wild. The most powerful concept he uses is ‘shifting baseline syndrome’, the idea that we consider the countryside of our childhood to be the ‘natural’ state of things. This is a useful reminder that notions of wilderness are culturally and socially mediated. I wasn’t especially surprised to learn that the UK is I found this book wholly delightful. It contains a mixture of adventures Monbiot has had in the wilder parts of the world and well-reasoned arguments for allowing more of the world to be wild. The most powerful concept he uses is ‘shifting baseline syndrome’, the idea that we consider the countryside of our childhood to be the ‘natural’ state of things. This is a useful reminder that notions of wilderness are culturally and socially mediated. I wasn’t especially surprised to learn that the UK is especially resistant to rewilding and strangely convinced that fields of sheep occur naturally. I wonder if this attachment to a specific vision of the past and general fear of visual change links also to the bizarrely fervent resistance to wind turbines? The incredible, near-feudal concentration of land ownership in the UK clearly also has a major impact here, as Monbiot notes.

Perhaps I was predisposed to embrace the idea of rewilding, but I’m gleeful at the prospect of wolves, boar, lynx, elk, and even elephants reinhabiting the UK. I grew up in rural East Anglia, in a landscape wholly dominated by monocultures of oilseed rape. Here and there pockets of habitat survived, in churchyards, around rivers, in hedgerows, and the odd meadow. Woods, however, were basically non existent. Monbiot’s accounts of exploring beautiful regenerating forests made me want to live in Scotland, where the air is clean enough for trees to be draped with lichens and moss.

Given the sheer scale of human destruction chronicled in the book, it is impressive how positive the overall message is. I suppose the massive amount of energy and effort expended to alter and degrade ecosystems implies a certain symmetry; stop expending that energy and ecosystems will quite quickly reconfigure themselves. Restricting climate change to asides also adds to this cheerful message. Rewilding is more closely linked to climate change adaptation than mitigation, as more diverse habitats tend to be more resilient. Regarding mitigation, it can only be hoped that greater personal identification with the wild environment would change social priorities away from overconsumption. Rewilding is, after all, subversive. Although its economic side benefits are discussed, ultimately it involves prioritising economic inactivity over profit-seeking use of land. Indeed, I doubt that the discipline of mainstream economics would ever comprehend rewilding. Monbiot himself stresses that the main benefit is the sheer wonder and enjoyment of wild places. Current social mores value what can be priced over such intangible concepts, so it is refreshing to find this challenged.

I was also amused to find a mention of how ‘authenticity’ is a difficult and unhelpful concept, something I tied myself in knots about while reading Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Perhaps my favourite element of the book, though, was the excited descriptions of extinct megafauna. It saddens me that, barring some great advance in cloning techniques, I’ll never see a giant ground sloth. I am deducting one star as the book could have a clearer structure. The academic side of me likes to see an argument set out systematically, although that clearly wasn’t the style intended here. Nonetheless, reading this book made me happier and enthusiastic about the prospects of rewilding. ...more

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Jun 01, 2013 Paul rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-read-2015, natural-history

The landscape of the UK has been tamed by man and domestic animal for millennia, so much so that vast parts of it are almost monocultures now. This legacy is one of the human desire to control and dominate their environment, and biodiversity has suffered as a result. In this book Monbiot is advocating us to re-engage with nature and considers bold and daring options to re-wild the countryside.

Possibly the bravest of his suggestions is to reintroduce wolves. First hearing this, most people will The landscape of the UK has been tamed by man and domestic animal for millennia, so much so that vast parts of it are almost monocultures now. This legacy is one of the human desire to control and dominate their environment, and biodiversity has suffered as a result. In this book Monbiot is advocating us to re-engage with nature and considers bold and daring options to re-wild the countryside.

Possibly the bravest of his suggestions is to reintroduce wolves. First hearing this, most people will raise their hands in horror because of the danger, but as has been proven in America, and other parts of Europe, the reintroduction of a top level predator can shake the natural environment completely. For example, having wolves back in Scotland will mean that the deer population can be controlled naturally, less deer will mean that the vegetation can grow and recover, and all these have a massive effect on the animals and plants up and down the food chain. The planned and accidental introduction of beavers seems to have worked, with the changes that they make to the river systems hopefully will have a knock on effect by reducing flooding.

He isn’t a huge fan of sheep either... These simple, harmless animals cause massive devastation to the landscape, almost to the point where there is more life in a desert that on the Welsh uplands. Areas that have had sheep excluded, within a handful of years will have a rich variety of flora and fauna. The same principle applies to oceans; the modern way of trawling with dragnets wreaks utter devastation to the ocean floor. Simply banning that type of fishing in certain areas, and limiting activity in the margin of the zone will have a similar effect fairly soon too.

But as ever change is never straightforward.

Monbiot is normally a political writer, and as you’d expect there is a political element to this book. He considers the effects that the common agricultural policy has on our landscape, in particular that very little land can be left to go wild and must always be managed to be able to claim subsidies. There is a part on the failed re-wilding undertaken by the Germans, and also the evidence that our present native trees had evolved to cope with the mega fauna such as elephants and rhino that used to live here.

There is at the moment precious political will to change things, coupled with powerful (and frequently absent) landowners with little desire for change, things are not going to happen soon. For change as bold as this there needs to be full commitment from all stakeholders and parties involved, and I for one would like to see the reintroduction of the top level predators and the return of proper wilderness to parts of Britain.

It is a well written and passionate plea for the necessary revolution that is needed in our natural world. Well worth reading. ...more

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Oct 22, 2015 Sergio Mori rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I think I didn't like it mainly because of the expectations I had. I thought the focus was going to be philosophical. Instead, what I got was the random adventures of a glorified boy scout. The final straw for me was the smug tone he adopts when he talks about cryptozoologists. Really annoying. He just sounds like a spoilt brat.

So, after 50-odd pages I gave up. If you can't grab my attention in 50 pages, you probably won't be able to do it later.

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Aug 07, 2016 Lyn rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I had waited a long time to read this book and opened it with much anticipation, fascinated by the topic and what I had read about it.
So it was very disappointing to discover that it was a bit of a drag to read, annoyingly opinionated, going off on weird tangents where the only purpose appeared to be to tell us what an adventurous fine fellow Monbiot is, and often just really boring.
I did enjoy learning about various animals that used to roam the British Isles and what it might take to reintrodu ...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Ariel Gordon rated it liked it · review of another edition

From the June 1 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press' Books Section:

Rabble-rousing U.K. journalist George Monbiot doesn't much like sheep.

In his eighth book, Feral, he minces no words about the effect the ruminants have on the British landscape: "Sheep farming in this country is a slow-burning ecological disaster, which has done more damage to the living systems of this country than either climate change or industrial pollution."

Monbiot worked as an investigative journalist in Brazil, Indonesia an ...more

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Dec 02, 2013 Sarah Clement rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: anthropocene

I really was not impressed with this book at first. I wanted a book on rewilding, and from the first page this seemed to be a record of Monbiot's mysterious adventures, boosted by delusions of grandeur. I suppose he wanted to set the tone and establish that this wasn't a dry, factual tome; but for me it just came off as pompous and distracting from the central point. As the book went on, however, it grew on me. I started to accept the book for what it really is; a sort of memoir of a British env I really was not impressed with this book at first. I wanted a book on rewilding, and from the first page this seemed to be a record of Monbiot's mysterious adventures, boosted by delusions of grandeur. I suppose he wanted to set the tone and establish that this wasn't a dry, factual tome; but for me it just came off as pompous and distracting from the central point. As the book went on, however, it grew on me. I started to accept the book for what it really is; a sort of memoir of a British environmentalist, dissatisfied with the lack of biodiversity that surrounds him. It was just structured around the concept of rewilding in this highly modified island, an island full of landscapes shaped by people and culture. As the book progressed, he still wove in some stories in which he featured as an intrepid traveler performing brave feats, but I warmed to them somewhat because the rest of the text was so damn good. I especially loved the chapters on Wales,which is one of my favourite places, and I really had not realised the full extent of modification in the uplands. I found the chapters on reintroductions (e.g. wolves, lynx) and marine conservation both captivating and compelling, and the information about reforesting the Scottish highlands was inspiring. This book is indeed sentimental, but it is also built on a solid foundation of knowledge from Monbiot, the literature, and experts. The chapter on "how not to rewild" at first threw me for a loop, as he invoked Godwin's law fairly early on, but by the end I realised what he was doing.

As a new migrant to the UK who seriously misses "proper" nature, this book gave me so much fodder for my imagination. The world I constructed from the information in this book is a Britain I would love to see. Unfortunately, aside from a few minor policy changes - like re-introducing a few animals and perhaps protecting a bit more of the sea - I can't fathom any of Monbiot's vision coming true. The environment is not even part of the national dialogue here. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed entertaining the notions in this book, and I would be happy if I was proven wrong and we really did rewild Britain. ...more

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Jan 04, 2015 Chris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, real-world

I heard the author on NPR so I had to read the book. The book is somewhat disjointed. It's got passion but too much info. But still read it. It's very informative. You learn about trophic cascades and shifting balance syndrome among other things. Monbiot is a revolutionary, an iconoclast, a pragmatist, and someone who should be in charge of making things happen. If you think the US is messed up in terms of its conservation you should look at the UK which Monbiot mercilessly grills over its inane ...more

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Nov 18, 2015 Maayan K rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

[...] I had banished my ecological boredom. The world had become alive with meaning, alive with possibility. The trees now bore the marks of elephants; their survival in the gorge prefigured the return of wolves. [...] the depleted land and sea were now gravid with promise. For the first time in years, I felt that I belonged in the world.

Warning: You might hate sheep by the end of this book.

A year and a half ago I read J.B. MacKinnon's book The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It I [...] I had banished my ecological boredom. The world had become alive with meaning, alive with possibility. The trees now bore the marks of elephants; their survival in the gorge prefigured the return of wolves. [...] the depleted land and sea were now gravid with promise. For the first time in years, I felt that I belonged in the world.

Warning: You might hate sheep by the end of this book.

A year and a half ago I read J.B. MacKinnon's book The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be. This is its more dangerous, passionate twin. Published in the same year (2013) the two books, were they scientific papers, would have been bitter competitors; as it is their authors give each other flattering blurbs. They both examine how humans have steadily subdued the Earth into fewer dimensions, reducing its natural state of nearly unimaginable abundance to a toy version where we seldom even recognize what we've lost. MacKinnon and and Monbiot both use many of the same references, mining deep history for stunning examples of environmental change and shifting baselines. They both show us the hope of regeneration, not through intensive management with prescribed end-goals, but through the concept of rewilding: the restoration of a few key ecological interactions that then do the work of transformation with little or no human intervention.

Monbiot's approach is more anthropological and more personal than MacKinnon's, and that's why to me this is the better book. He spends more time exploring the idea of the inner rewilding of people themselves - and in particular of his own self. The book is punctuated by his increasingly ill-advised expeditions in his kayak out from Cardigan Bay, near his home in Wales, as he attempts to hook, harpoon, and bodily wrestle sea creatures with indifferent skill but increasingly apparent enthusiasm through the soaking rain and stiffening winds. These missions - in a denuded, poor piece ocean on the tame Welsh shoreline - nonetheless bring him (and us) into contact with a bit of danger, a bit of rawness. I think this is the feeling Monbiot wants us to get - the feeling of primal energy that despite being soaked and cold, you are holding a trident and trying to kill something which you will eat, raw, on the shore not long after. He wants to trigger a genetic memory in himself and his readers of what it might feel like to take part in an ecological world with all its complexity and interacting parts. This is what he means by being released from ecological boredom (a great phrase). Of course Monbiot offers the usual caveats: he acknowledges that life is better now than it ever has been, less violent, longer, cleaner, etc. He knows that the primal violence of a wild life often involves trampling the freedom of others, and he doesn't defend that. But he wants us to remember the feeling - perhaps a feeling most of us have never felt.

Though Monbiot brings examples from all over history and the world, I especially enjoyed the time he spends on his home country of Wales and Britain. It's in these parts where we get to enjoy his biting wit as he roasts local politicians and conservation agencies for their counterproductive efforts. In contrast to Europe, where people are in part embracing the reforestation of formerly agricultural land and the return of wolves, bears, and other creatures, Britain, Monbiot argues, is the most zoophobic country on Earth. They have no more predators and they would like to keep it that way, thanks very much. This absence has had disastrous results for everything else as unchecked deer (game for rich absentee landlords) and sheep farming (unprofitable but heavily subsidized) graze woodland and pasture to the roots, preventing regeneration. These sheep- and deer- scoured uplands of Scotland, England and Wales, which used to be covered by rainforests but now resemble blasted moonscapes, are themselves the objects of "environmental" protection (!). The tiny bits of forest that are left are dying of old age because no new tree can survive the grazing. Yet, governments and nature agencies claim that this grazing is critical for the conservation management of the desired upland environment. Monbiot dismantles this circular logic with thorough and devastating effect. I will never see the iconic treeless rolling hills and cliffs of Britain the same way again.

This book is really good at showing how rewilding and human thriving aren't necessarily at odds. The poisonous trope in environmentalism that people are cancerous growths on the planet dovetails very eerily with horrific political ideologies that have asserted similar things, usually about specific types of people, whereupon they are removed or murdered. In the end, Monbiot's greatest triumph isn't his command of science, his rich historical research, or his sharp writing (though they're all on point), it's his tenderness towards the people that he encounters on the land. As environmentalists, feeling and enacting that tenderness is the only way we can hope to justly live in a wilder and better world. ...more

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May 11, 2018 Pete rated it it was ok

I’ve done quite well to avoid leaving reviews on goodreads so far, but I notice that a few friends on here have this book on their ‘want to read’ list - so this is for them.

I was so excited to read this book. I really was. I knew that there would be parts of this book that I would disagree with but that wouldn’t usually put me off a book as of course it shouldn’t. The problem is though that despite taking a run at this with a measure of excitement and anticipation I was instead left overwhelmin ...more

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Oct 24, 2015 Linnaea rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, call-to-arms

I wish I could give this book a higher score - it is really interesting but there is too much Monbiot romanticizing the bronze age and too much Monbioit's journaling for the book to feel like a complete thesis. This book is about rewilding the world around us, which can be an incredibly important movement in our world today with the re-introducing of beavers, wolves, and other corner stone animals. Monbiot writes from Wales, so his book only lightly touches on the importance of wolves in Yellows ...more

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Jan 21, 2016 John rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Monbiot covers some interesting ground about restoring process rather than specific structure to "rewild" landscapes, but for the most part the book kept me asking, "when is he going to get to the point"? He wanders through all sorts of his own adventures and some interesting biological history of Europe but in the end doesn't really put together a cohesive story. At least it didn't work for me. I gave up about 2/3 of the way through frustrated with his lack of focus and often pompous attitude. ...more

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May 03, 2013 Leah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: factual, 2013, new-to-me, nature-environment

‘A raucous summer…’

In the past few years, I feel I have been observing a welcome note of commonsense and even optimism creeping into the arguments of some of our leading environmentalists. In this book Monbiot, while proposing ambitious and doubtless controversial ideas, confirms that impression.

Feral is his story of why and how he has come to believe that the future for nature conservancy is to stop conserving - to sit back, release the brakes and go on a wild ride with nature in the driving se ...more

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Jul 09, 2013 Christopher rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

We all have the need - buried deep in our psyche - to once in a while experience something truly wild. This is what Feral has convinced me of. George exquisitely describes a frustration that I've recently felt; one that stems from a modern life where our basic human needs are increasingly met through consumerism. Skills that were once necessary for survival have died out, and with them to a large extent has gone our respect for the natural world. Meandering back and forth between his own amazing We all have the need - buried deep in our psyche - to once in a while experience something truly wild. This is what Feral has convinced me of. George exquisitely describes a frustration that I've recently felt; one that stems from a modern life where our basic human needs are increasingly met through consumerism. Skills that were once necessary for survival have died out, and with them to a large extent has gone our respect for the natural world. Meandering back and forth between his own amazing experiences with nature, and thorough investigations into current environmental policy, George describes how human intervention has strangled the land and sea into a restricted and artificial state. Yet, rather than repeatedly bombard the reader with horror stories of policy-maker's mistreatment of the environment (there are plenty!), he presents a strong vision for the future which appears to be gathering momentum; rewilding. The story of rewilding so far exposes the short-sighted idea of conservation that some of our proudest national institutions hold. I was astonished by how the disproportionate amount of power afforded to land owners by the British government has frozen our landscape into a barren and lifeless 'desert' - far from the densely forested thriving habitat it once was. George makes the case that Britain is missing the large predators and herbivores that roamed here centuries ago. The reader is guided through numerous well-researched examples of how their reintroduction would allow nature to regulate itself, with benefits to other species and even to the all-important 'economic output' of the countryside.

Feral has opened my eyes to the desperate condition of our ecosystems, but has shown that in rewilding we have a compelling and workable solution. This is a rallying call for us all to preserve and encourage the growth of genuinely wild spaces. I now believe that these are not only critical to the recovery of highly endangered species, but to our own experience of feeling alive. ...more

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Feb 09, 2014 Wanda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

My husband read this and seemed to be enjoying it a lot. I found the title and concept intriguing. I admit that when my husband looked up occasionally from the book to tell me what was happening it sounded like Monbiot was having a midlife crisis. With these reservations in mind I started the book and it was true he was having a midlife crisis. His life wasn't exciting enough anymore since he had kids and had to be responsible and not go off to war zones to report and what not. Each chapter open ...more

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Aug 06, 2015 Jonathan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites

I don't think I can exaggerate the impact of this text upon my thinking.

Whilst born and partly educated in the suburbs, most of my life has been spent in the countryside and I readily identify as a member of the rural community (minus the flat cap, cider addiction and thick West Country accent) and my recent academic explorations focused on reintroducing woodland to the catchment of the Somerset Levels: had I read Monbiot prior to finishing, I would either have been far more radical in my interv ...more

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Aug 31, 2014 Pete Trewin rated it it was amazing

A wonderful, thought-provoking book. George Monbiot makes the arguments for and against his case - that parts of the British Isles should be 'rewilded' to what they were in pre-history - and lets you decide for yourself. I like that. And as a qualified zoologist he certainly knows his stuff. No sentimental love of large predators here (a point of view that often goes with a quasi-fascist disdain for the human beings who live in their habitats). No, it is carefully argued on scientific - and in p ...more

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Jul 31, 2014 Marie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have been following George Monbiot through his Guardian column for many years and always enjoyed his old-fashioned passion and his sparking social conscience as he writes on everything from the environment to the economy. This was the first of his books that I've read and while recognizing his mildly sarcastic and very English wit and his lucid views, I was pleasantly surprised to also make acquaintance with another side to his writing, a side which doesn't always come across in his more journ ...more

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Aug 25, 2013 Daren Kearl rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Got to p103 and decided not to read any further. Monbiot's research and descriptions are interesting and poetic, but his suggestions to return to an ecosystem that was 40,000 years ago by re-introducing animals and removing sheep so that trees can re-establish themselves on the hills of Wales and Scotland are too radical. Whether he likes it or not, things have moved on with our intervention, and we cannot go back. As he accepts himself, a hunter gatherer lifestyle can only support a UK populati ...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Andrea McDowell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: social-and-cultural, science, green

I am, first of all, so thankful that George Monbiot broke his mold and spent a book writing about something with more hopeful overtones than the end of the world. Not that the end of the world isn't a worthy subject for a life's work, but as a change of pace, was it ever nice not to read about death and destruction on every single page. Thank you, George.

Feral is about rewilding. Not conservation, which he equates to a "prison" in which well-intentioned folks try to arrest ecosystems in artifici I am, first of all, so thankful that George Monbiot broke his mold and spent a book writing about something with more hopeful overtones than the end of the world. Not that the end of the world isn't a worthy subject for a life's work, but as a change of pace, was it ever nice not to read about death and destruction on every single page. Thank you, George.

Feral is about rewilding. Not conservation, which he equates to a "prison" in which well-intentioned folks try to arrest ecosystems in artificial stages, whether it's good for them or not. Rewilding is about people letting go of the reigns and allowing nature to do whatever it is that it's going to do, and as it turns out, in every place it's been tried so far (whether intentionally or no), it's led to something good. Go figure. Nature knows what to do without people bossing it around.

Feral is, too, an awful lot about George pulling an Ernest Hemingway, although in wilderness or its closest counterparts rather than in bull-rings or war zones. He gets himself nearly dashed to pieces at sea in a kayak at least a couple of times and goes tramping around in various inhospitable places, looking for danger, and sometimes he finds it. In this, it has tones of a mid-life crisis, but at least it's directed at something of possible benefit to the biosphere, which was thoughtful.

The one considerable downside of the book was the several chapters George spends (as other reviewers put it) muttering about how much he hates sheep. No doubt, over-grazing by sheep has been enormously destructive everywhere it's been tried, and it is stupid beyond belief to expend precious conservation dollars preserving landscapes that are the result of sheep eating everything not actively poisonous to them. I really don't think it deserves the amount of space George gives it in this book, and it certainly reduces the interest and impact considerably for anyone not living in a place dominated by a sheep economy. This is a shame.

Still. Rewilding is a lovely and important idea with emotional appeal for everyone who cares about nature and, when George isn't balefully staring down sheep, Feral explores it well. ...more

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Jan 14, 2014 Michelle rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway, and it's taken me ages to read it. I basically only finished it to write this review. Some of the prose is very captivating, but some of it is rather purple. I'd cut out the whole first chapter, too.

My feelings about this book are summed up in the words of a Welsh farmer who the author interviews on page 176-177. The author calls it "the subject that divided us", and the farmer says "I'm not against something new...but it should be progression from ...more

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Jun 14, 2014 Chris Leuchtenburg rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: nature

I didn't get very far into this book. At least the first several chapters are about Monbiot's experiences in the wild, not about re-anything. There is an entire chapter detailing his kayaking out to sea to catch Mackerel. Too much Hemingway manliness and not enough about changing ecosystems.

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Feb 23, 2016 J. Muro rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Fantastic read, and nicely researched. Loved this book! Four stars for that. Not five, because it still needs more research and work, besides just the author's intermittent brief adventures outside for a certain amount of time, because he wanted or needed to. And how outside is just "fun and beautiful," while as a former conscious child, and later a very aware adult parent.
Felt as if it was mostly written from his own need, want, lust, experiences, privileges, and more for more "wild" things ...more

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Nov 09, 2014 Fraser rated it it was amazing

This is an eye-opening and frankly awakening read. Monbiot is a magnificent writer, but his passion for the wild and the need to stop with our "conservation" efforts is forceful, lyrical in places and finally persuasive. There are passages where you can feel you are there with him. His trip in a kayak in search of albacore was one of those which were breath-taking in sincerity and in bringing the reader along with him.

This is not about throwing a picnic blanket on the ground, skimming a rock ove ...more

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Feb 18, 2018 Wendy Wagner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: great-nonfiction, animals, environment

A bit of a slow (albeit fun) start. The middle section, mostly spent discussing conservation and forestry efforts in Scotland, is absolutely riveting. Inspiring stuff!

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Apr 30, 2020 Julia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Brilliant storytelling, groundbreaking in its portrayal of the natural world. Been meaning to read this for so long and finally did. So worth it. Put it at the top of your list.

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May 03, 2013 Alex McGilvery rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Feral is a non-fiction book on the subject of rewilding. Rewilding is allowing large spaces of land to return to an uncontrolled state. It is the uncontrolled portion of the definition that is especially important to Monbiot. He suggests that when we try to control how the ecosystem will be revived, that we limit our vision. We set the bar too low and fail to see the possible complexities that may arise. The job of the human species is to re-introduce some animals into areas that they are extinc Feral is a non-fiction book on the subject of rewilding. Rewilding is allowing large spaces of land to return to an uncontrolled state. It is the uncontrolled portion of the definition that is especially important to Monbiot. He suggests that when we try to control how the ecosystem will be revived, that we limit our vision. We set the bar too low and fail to see the possible complexities that may arise. The job of the human species is to re-introduce some animals into areas that they are extinct or scare and let nature find its own balance.

The examples he uses are drawn from around the world, but especially from Scotland where large tracts of land are being protected from over grazing by deer or sheep. As the grazing slows the wilderness that has hidden for centuries begins to return and it continues to surprise and delight.

This is a book that is full of lyrical prose describing Monbiot’s connection to the land and the wilderness. Many times the connection is one of a spiritual nature as he discovers in himself the memory of a richer place than where we now live. What is equally clear in his writing is the hope. This is no doom and gloom book of how we have irrevocably ruined our home. Rather Monbiot suggests that the ecology is able to recover in strange and unexpected ways if we give it a minimum of help and a minimum of interference. He waxes poetic about the possibility of returning lions and elephants to Europe in a similar way to how the wolf and bear have made a comeback in several countries.
One change can cause a whole raft of changes. He uses the example of beavers helping rivers to heal, and the regeneration of the Yellowstone ecology after the re-introduction of wolves there. He admits that the changes won’t all be popular, but he argues that in the long run we will be richer for the rewilded spaces than we are with the mono-cultures that so many people accept as ‘wilderness’.

This is a fascinating and enthralling book to read. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a glimpse of hope about the earth’s future. ...more

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“I thought of walks in the English countryside, where people start shouting at you as soon as you stray from the footpath.” — 6 likes

“But rewilding, unlike conservation, has no fixed objective: it is driven not by human management but by natural processes. There is no point at which it can be said to have arrived. Rewilding of the kind that interests me does not seek to control the natural world, to re-create a particular ecosystem or landscape, but – having brought back some of the missing species – to allow it to find its own way.” — 5 likes

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