Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back - An Illustrated Guide (2025 Carnegie Medal for Illustration Nominated)

An inspiring story of hope showing what happens when you let nature take the lead.

Shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize for Nature and Conservation Writing for Children

Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back - An Illustrated Guide is a stunningly beautiful gift book written by Isabella Tree, which tells the story of the Knepp Estate in West Sussex.

It is illustrated in full colour with lino prints and watercolours by Angela Harding, photographs from Knepp, and easy in-garden activities to 're-wild' your own spaces.

Knepp is now home to some of the rarest and most beautiful creatures in the UK, including nightingales, peregrine falcons, scarce chaser dragonflies, and purple emperor butterflies. When you walk out into the scrubland on an early spring morning the sound of birdsong is so loud it feels like it’s vibrating in your lungs. This is the story of Knepp, and a guide telling you how to bring wildlife back where you live.

Includes timelines, an in-depth look at rewilding, spotlight features about native animals including species that have returned and thrive - butterflies, bats, owls and beetles.

The book encourages you to slow down and observe the natural world around you, understand the connections between species and habitats, and the huge potential for life right on your doorstep.

'Perfect for anyone looking to make the life of even a hedgehog a little easier' – Daily Mail

Isabella Tree is an award-winning author, travel writer, and manager of the the Knepp Wildland Project, together with her husband Charlie. She is the author of several books, including Wilding, The Living Goddess and The Bird Man.

Angela Harding is an author, printmaker and illustrator who lives in the village of Wing, Rutland. British birds and animals have always inspired her artwork especially familiar garden birds like sparrows and blackbirds and waders such as Curlews, Redshanks and Oystercatchers.

She is the author and illustrator of A Year Unfolding: A Printmaker’s View and Wild Light: A Printmaker’s Day and Night and has created the covers for many bestselling books, including The Salt Path and The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn, October, October by Katya Balen, English Pastoral by James Rebanks, Christmas is Murder by Val McDermid and RSPB Birds among many others.