Naturalist Mark Cocker says that this book cost him ‘proportionately more hard labour’ than any of his others and it’s easy to believe. His impressive research and knowledge of his subject have resulted in a deeply worrying portrait of a countryside that has been impoverished almost beyond belief through disastrous policy-making, greed and inertia. It does not make cheerful reading, but it is riveting stuff. The book starts slowly, but Cocker is an engaging companion who mixes local history and tales of vanishing ways of life with stories of the heroes, heroines and villains of nature conservation over the last hundred years. Sadly, by and large the villains have held sway and the gradual – and ongoing – desecration of ‘our place’ meant that the 2013 State of Nature report found Britain to be one of the most denatured countries in the world. Monoculture, fertilisers, pesticides, rampant afforestation, acidification of our rivers and so on have gone hand in hand with loss of ancient woodland, fenland, vast numbers of birds and insects, and 99% of flower-rich meadows. Did you know: ‘Conifers such as cypress support far fewer invertebrates than deciduous trees. I cannot find figures for leylandii cypress, but fir and larch have only 16 and 17 associated insects respectively. Oak and willow, for comparison, have 284 and 266 respectively.’ ‘Britain is still one of the most densely populated countries in Europe with 700 per square mile, a figure that is only exceeded by the Netherlands (1,056 per square mile). If one measures only England, however, then it is revealed as amongst the most densely occupied regions on Earth (1,053 persons per square mile), with a density greater than India (1,005 per square mile).’ Statistics prevent Cocker’s narrative from being merely alarmist – and it comes as no surprise that the 2016 State of Nature report showed further species decline and destruction of habitat. This is happening now. Nuff said.