Winter Lecture 2025: Guy Shrubsole
The Lie of the Land: Who really cares for the countryside?
Britain's landowners, we are told, are the rightful stewards of the countryside. They care for the land, they nurture it for future generations and for the good of all. But this is not always true.
In The Lie of the Land, Guy Shrubsole shows that a handful of large landowners are responsible for the destruction and degradation of many of our most important landscapes. This book paints a vivid picture of some of the most dramatic failures of land stewardship in Britain's recent history. But it also tells the story of the people trying to pick up the pieces - the small-scale farmers, community groups and members of the public who may not own the land, but who nevertheless seek to be its custodians.
Guy Shrubsole is an environmental campaigner and writer. He is the author of Who Owns England?, an instant Sunday Times bestseller, and The Lost Rainforests of Britain, which won the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation.
For the past decade and a half Guy has campaigned on the climate and nature crises, working for a wide range of organisations from Friends of the Earth and the Right to Roam campaign, to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
