How to be Wild

We are all wild.

It’s just that civilisation keeps getting in the way.

And the more civilised we become, the more we need the wild: wild places, wild creatures, and wild experiences.

As every one who has patted a dog, smelled a rose, taken a walk, or even had a drink in the garden, well knows humans have a soul-deep need for non-human forms of life. This book is about pushing our birthright of wildness just that little bit further.

In How to be Wild Barnes takes us on a journey through a year, from one raucous spring to the next-with sparrows and flying squirrels, blackbirds and elephants, badgers and rhinos, butterflies and mosquitoes, as his companions. And again and again, in myriad different ways, he helps us to realise an essential truth: that by enjoying the wild world, by saving the wild world, by seeking to understand the wild world, our own lives become richer and more satisfying. That is what being wild means.