The Woodland Year is a triumphant celebration of the re-emergence of our traditional woodland culture. Ben Law expands on his previous writings to take the reader month by month through the activities that sustain his coppice-related livelihood at Prickly Nut Wood. With his usual modesty and good humour, The Woodland Year provides a kaleidoscopic insight into the woodsman's life.

Amidst the background narrative of Ben's seasonal tasks at home in the beautiful woods, immortalised by Channel 4's Grand Designs, appear wild food recipes (must try the ‘Party Squirrel'), homemade drinks (beech leaf liqueur anyone?), greenwood crafts, building with local timber, profiles of our indigenous trees and fascinating vignettes by another dozen woodlanders. In their own words, each describes his or her own experience of making woodland work a viable and rewarding option.

Images of working horses on a winter's dawn, elfish children stoking the fire and sunlight glancing through dappled bluebell woods are realistically balanced with the physical and mental rigours and realities of sustaining a livelihood from wood, woodlands and related activities. Each month we meet charcoal burners, hurdle makers, chairmakers, community woodlanders, teachers and apprentices and also gain a view of the full and rich life that Ben has created managing his own woodland.

If, like me, you took Ben's earlier The Woodland Way as a definitive textbook on your path to a lower-carbon, more sustainable, low-impact woody-related lifestyle then this book is a joyful reaffirmation that you found the right textbook; that there are others out there successfully enjoying this challenging and rewarding way of life. If like millions of others your imagination was entrapped by Ben's beautiful, quirky, homemade woodland house as it appeared on television, then this book is equally captivating. At once realistic, practical and alluringly tactile, it should become a springboard for those seeking a sustainable livelihood from the woods. At the same time it is a fascinating book for the uninitiated to dip into: an introductory trove full of inspiration, colour and wonder.

Henry Dowell

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Photo (c) Ben Law 2008