100 Books Like The Lost Rainforests of Britain

I loved this book as it follows the author’s quest to reconnect with nature and rediscover a sense of enchantment following the challenges of the COVID lockdowns.

Split into the four elements – earth, air, fire, and water – the author describes her explorations of each element in her life and how if leads her back to herself. I love the book as it enabled me to see nature through the author’s eyes, and with a perspective that is in some ways almost entirely different to my own, and in others, in harmony with my own thoughts and feelings. It was indeed an enchanting read.

I love this book because it is like a gentle meander through the woods with the author. You get a real sense of what details draw him in, what his fascinations are, and his discoveries through the turning seasons.

It is often said that in order to really get to know a place, it is good to walk the same route in nature every day, and that was the sense I got with this book. The author knows the landscape of the woods so well, it is like he is visiting an old friend.

When I was stuck indoors a lot during the COVID lockdown, it really helped me to remember why nature is so healing, and also inspired my own walks at this time which were spent in a small area of woodland in London.

I love this book as I used it as a road map of swimming adventures when I moved back home to the West Country after thirty years of living in the city.

I was faced with the challenge of not knowing where to swim, as we didn’t really go in the water when I was a child. The author visits a plethora of favourite swimming spots with a group of friends, and I felt like I was accompanying them on their trips.

I was able to use the book as a guide, to go and visit all the spots Lynne Roper mentions in her diaries, safe in the knowledge I was visiting places that people have swum in for years.

I first fell in love with this book as a teenager. I first discovered it when the BBC did a fabulous adaptation of the novel and I was compelled to go and read the novel.

The book follows the story of Prudence Sarn, a woman living with a facial disfigurement at the time of the Corn Laws and the Napoleonic Wars. Her brother decides to make his fortune growing corn on the family farm, and promises Pru a cure for her facial scars if she helps him, however, his obsession with money soon turns them towards disaster, and the local community turn on Pru, accusing her of being a witch.

Returning to academic study in my forties, I wrote my PhD novel and thesis on the life of Mary Webb, a nature mystic, and it just served to make me love the novel even more. Webb’s descriptions of rural Shropshire… show more.

Ally Beavan had a ringside seat during the lockdown year of 2020 as a few special ultrarunners lined up to take a shot at many of the long-standing records in the sport. As support crew, pacer, or simply cheerleader on many of these attempts, Beavan puts us right where the action is for a rare and often entertaining insight into what a very special time if you could run a long way very fast. I was compelled, informed, and entertained in equal measure.

Mathew Harffy has a lot going for him in the historical fiction world. His fight scenes are not overly technical and are easy to follow. They have just the right amount of blood and gore to make you believe the characters are really in danger but are not simply gratuitous violence. What I really love about this book is his voice when he writes descriptions of the forest and the people who live in it. I grew up in the woods of a small town in Canada, and I know how the forest can be a peaceful, tranquil setting one moment and then suddenly transform into a place of shadows and dread. Judging by the cover of this book, I think Harffy knows this as well.

When John Darwin got into debt and ran out of money-making ideas, he decided to fake his own death so that his wife could claim the life insurance. The plan was to move to another country and live off the proceeds of his crime. But things didn’t go to plan. The arrogance and ineptitude of John Darwin, and his complete disregard for his family, defies belief. I couldn’t wait to read this book and was not disappointed. It has now been made into a drama by the BBC in the UK.

In 1940 London, Maggie Hope, a brilliant mind who graduated top of her class, is recruited by Number 10 Downing Street to be…a typist. Of course. She’s a woman. She’s also a crackerjack code breaker. I think you know where this is going. The character is wonderful, the writing strong, the story tight. A highlight for me was when Maggie –a young, virginal, cerebral type—pulls off a daring motorcycle jump with a man on the back because she has to. I don’t know, I think there’s a life lesson somewhere in there.

I was living in Madrid, Spain, when one of my friends and fellow English-language teachers, Heather, nudged me and said, “James, you have to read this.”

I was in my “James only reads highbrow literature” era, so I told her that the cover looked too pulpy (yes, I was guilty of judging a book by its cover). Thankfully, my respect for Heather forced me to overlook my biases and give Pillars a shot. I’m so glad I did.

The prose style is simple and accessible (obeying Animal Farm author George Orwell’s advice to write prose as transparent as a “windowpane”). And that’s good, because the content draws you in completely.

A village in Medieval England decides to build a cathedral. The characters range from evil knights to noble monks to savvy businesswomen to scheming clerics. The world is rich with detail and the pages are addicting, almost turning themselves. It’s… show more.

If I’d been a London teenager at the outbreak of WW2, Joan is who I’d choose to have as my best friend. Joan’s memoirs, taken from her actual diaries, which were written secretly during bombing raids, reveal a conflicted, hormonally charged, humorous woman. This snippet gives you an idea: “Well here I sit in the air-raid shelter with screaming bombs falling right and left…I can’t help feeling that each moment may be my last, and as the opposite of death is life, I think I shall get seduced by Rupert tomorrow.” Written with great wit, and full of joie de vivre, Love Lessons is a wonderful read.