A review by lauradoesnothing
The Trespasser's Companion by Nick Hayes

challenging informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

The fate of the land
Lies not in the hands
Of its owners
False and true
But nature will thrive
When the commons arise
In the actions
Of me and you

The problem I find with pretty much all the books I've read on activism in various spheres, is that they tend to take a tone that's off-putting no matter how much you agree with their ideals. There's a bit too much intensity, like you should put the book down Right Now and start working on your protest banner, or you're no better than the 1%. Exhausting.

This is a much gentler book, though no less radical. Rather than exhorting those of us law-abiding citizens to pack that all in for a life of reckless antisocialism, it instead reframes things we do every day as revolutionary acts - it's easier to go from walking on public land to walking on private land, than it is to go from walking on public land to dousing public figures in red paint. 

I was pleasantly surprised as well that it's not just a manifesto about how we ought to be able to go wherever we like because we live here (justified as that would be) but actually devotes more space to discussing our responsibilities to the land: how to safely forage, camp and light fires without harming ourselves or the local wildlife. It makes it abundantly clear that this is a give-and-take, a symbiotic relationship. 

It does a great job of spotlighting marginalised voices with some guest contributors who aren't the middle-class, middle-aged straight white able-bodied people we usually think of as being "your typical country folk", which showed their individual perspectives on what it means to be out in nature.

Also, it's a GORGEOUS book. The phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" is dead to me.