Author Talk

We are very excited to host Eloise Kane to celebrate her new book Wilderlands: The Human History of Wild Britain. Please join us for a discussion of the book, followed by a Q&A and book signing. The event is free but please RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk. Space is limited and in demand! About the book When was Britain last truly wild? And what, if anything, remains? This is the unexpectedly human history of wild Britain. Eloise Kane unearths 12,000 years of our changing relationship with and influence on the landscape. Through prehistory, Roman occupation, the Middle Ages and beyond, we see the unfamiliar beasts of our old wild make way for species such as brown hare and fallow deer, now romanticised as eternal symbols of the British countryside, but introduced much later than we might think. Places free from our influence haven't existed for a very long time. But Eloise Kane invites us to rethink our definition of the wild - not as separate from us. Seen anew as the result of millions of human lives lived, Wilderlands demonstrates how we are integral to the ecology and biodiversity of our land, with the power to shape its future. About the author Eloise Kane is an archaeologist. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Royal Agricultural University, an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and previously served as Honorary Treasurer of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology. Her research interests are in landscape, environmental, and animal history/archaeology – historic parks, hunting landscapes, country houses, woodlands, animal sports, and the relationship between humans and the wild. She lives on the edge of Salisbury Plain with a small menagerie of children and beasts.