Published in 2020, when readers were in Covid-19 lockdown and acutely aware of the unequal access to nature, Hayes’ book became a bestseller. That same year, Hayes and Guy Shrubsole co-founded Right to Roam: a campaign demanding a “default right of responsible access” in England. Modeled on Scotland’s right to roam and the Nordic “everyman’s right,” this right would grant permission-free access to all land and rivers, private or otherwise, providing individuals followed certain rules like respecting the landowner’s privacy and leaving no trace.
Right to Roam has generated widespread debate about land access and justice in England and beyond — in large part thanks to its use of trespass as direct action. Making the case for a right to roam, and proactively modeling what it could look like, hundreds have mobilized to walk, swim, play and protest in off-limits locations around England: Kinder reservoir, Cirencester Park, Englefield Estate, Dartmoor National Park, Berry Pomeroy and Scots Dyke (an earthwork built in 1552 in the so-called Debatable Lands to mark the border between the kingdoms of Scotland and England).
Vacation rental with the in-laws — for many, it’s a setup for disaster. In Weike Wang’s “Rental House,” it’s certainly that. It’s also an opportunity for Wang, a wildly gifted writer, to explore the upside and downside of education, marriage and family. Add to the mix an interracial couple where one partner hails from an Appalachian background like that of JD Vance and the other’s life was shaped by the policies of Chairman Mao, and you have all you need for a laugh-out-loud satire of American dysfunction.
‘Gerald Durrell was magic” chirrups David Attenborough across the cover of this collection by the beloved naturalist and author who died in 1995. Chosen by Durrell’s widow ahead of his centenary in January, it includes magazine pieces, radio talks, letters, introductions to other people’s books and a selection from the vast archive of his unpublished writing. What binds the pieces is the signature magic of which Attenborough, whose own career parallels and counterpoints Durrell’s, speaks. It might best be described as the gift of finding wonder everywhere. Here is Durrell, in an unpublished scrap of memoir, on the four years he spent as a child in prewar Corfu. “Leaf to bud, caterpillar to butterfly, tadpole to toad or frog, I was surrounded by miracles. I was surrounded by magic as though Merlin had passed through and casually touched the island with his wand.”