My enormous thanks to Kate Hambly for sending me a copy of A Wilding Year by Hannah Dale all those months ago in return for an honest review. It’s my pleasure finally to share that review today and my apologies that it is later than hoped.
Published by Batsford Books on 13th March 2025, A Wilding Year is available for purchase through the publisher links here.
A Wilding Year
Follow Hannah Dale’s deeply personal journey as she returns her Lincolnshire farm to nature, celebrating the return of an astonishing variety of wildlife.
Hannah Dale, the artist and founder of the award-winning nature-centric gift company Wrendale Designs, takes you through a year on her farm in rural Lincolnshire where, alongside her husband, she has undertaken an ambitious rewilding project. Together, they are attempting to return the land to nature and increase the number of species their land is able to support.
A Wilding Year explores how one family have been able to embrace the beauty to be found in untidy landscapes, heralding the return of skylarks, meadow pipits, hobbies, polecats and many more species to their farm. The land was originally claimed from marshy wetlands, and leaning into the land’s natural inclination to be wet has also yielded amazing ponds and pond life.
This rewilding journey has also provided Hannah with new sources of inspiration for her paintings. A Wilding Year is both a journal and a sketchbook, in which Hannah keeps a visual record of the incredible variety of species she finds on the farm.
This fascinating account of a year spent in nature brings to life the beauty and power of wildlife in every season.
My Review of A Wilding Year
Life on a Lincolnshire farm as the owners embrace nature.
Wow! What a fantastic book. Part journal, part nature book, part artist’s portfolio, part memoir, it’s difficult to convey just how beautiful a book A Wilding Year is. Without wishing to sound hyperbolic, reading it is akin to a spiritual cleansing, because Hannah Dale immerses the reader in nature so effectively that they are experiencing her life observing and discovering the world around her as if they are by her side. I don’t read much non-fiction, but I thought this book was magnificent and it is no exaggeration to say I finished it feeling as if I knew the author and her farm intimately. I felt Hannah Dale’s range of emotions from surprise and rage to wonder and hope with her.
As Hannah Dale takes the reader through her experiences, her writing is beautiful, painterly and evocative, but she does not shy away from the harsher realities of nature and the impact of climate change. Living in Lincolnshire as I do, I could relate to every word – from the missing hoverflies to the lack of small birdsong.
Despite its honesty, A Wilding Year is most certainly not all doom. What Hannah Dale does so eloquently, so convincingly and, actually, as a galvanising call to arms, is to illustrate that all is not lost if only we all played a small part in rewilding. The ‘dysfunctional relationship’ as Hannah sees it between us and nature can be changed – to the benefit of nature and humans – and she articulates this concept irresistibly and eloquently.
The illustrations in A Wilding Year are truly magnificent. There’s an ethereal quality to the watercolour style images that only serves to heighten the text. The pictures mean that this would make a perfect gift book.
I thought A Wilding Year was fantastic. Essential reading for anyone remotely interested in the natural world around them, my only criticism is that I wish it had been available when my much missed Dad was alive. He would have adored it just as much as I do and reading A Wilding Year made me feel closer to him. I loved it.
About Hannah Dale
Hannah Dale runs Wrendale Designs, a stationery and gift design company which specialises in endearing illustrations depicting British wildlife. Her other Batsford titles include: A Dog’s Life, The Farmyard Set, The Young Ones, The Country Set, Born to be Wild and Flying The Nest.
Hannah lives in rural Lincolnshire and her work is inspired by the beautiful surrounding countryside. She is also a trained zoologist.
Visit Wrendale Designs for further information.
English (US) · 