ACCIDENTAL COUNTRYSIDE: Hidden Havens

This appealing journey through the British countryside takes us from place to place and back in time, starting with prehistoric Shetland where the red-necked phalarope has made a comeback and ending with the habitat creation project on the Avalon Marshes in Somerset. The author is fascinated by the way wildlife has taken advantage of human habitation and transformed it for its own needs. Since WWII pollution, intensive farming and the global climate emergency have contributed to a loss of habitats for adders, stoats, lizards, orchids, bush crickets, peregrine falcons and great crested grebes, to name a few. However, these endangered species have found unexpected havens in abandoned transport networks, places of worship and industrial sites. The author visits the Shetland iron age settlement on the island of Mousa, where the broch, a round lookout post, is as solid now as when it was built. Since then there have been four conquests of the British Isles, the Romans, Saxons Vikings and Normans, each one bringing its distinctive technology. Rare lichens now spread themselves on Hadrian's Wall, wheatears and ring ouzels return from Africa and perch on granite boulders, while the Emperor Moth is again an upland speciality. Following the Industrial Revolution, visiting the countryside became a specialised activity, with walking and rambling set apart from everyday life, but there are signs that we are once again embracing nature. Our railway network of 10,000 miles was more than twice that at beginning of the 20th century, and old railway lines are now becoming wildlife corridors, with some of the most popular to be found in urban settings such as Finsbury Park to Highgate and Bristol to Bath. 260pp paperback.