About the Book
SHORTLISTED AND HIGHLY COMMENDED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON CONSERVATION.
WINNER OF THE BES MARSH ECOLOGY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024.
'Full of joy, pathos, warmth, integrity and intrigue.' AMY-JANE BEER
'One of the most notable works of recent nature writing.' HELEN MACDONALD
'A thrilling expedition into a wild, unruly world.' LEE SCHOFIELD
'Gently thought-provoking and beautifully written.' LEIF BERSWEDEN
'The remarkable story of Britain's wild boar.' THE GUARDIAN
'A real page-turner.' STEPHEN MOSS
After centuries of absence, wild boar are back in Britain. What does this mean for us – and them?
Big, messy and mysterious – crossing paths with a wild boar can conjure fear and joy in equal measure. Driven to extinction seven hundred years ago, a combination of the species' own tenacity and illegal releases from the 1980s has seen several populations of this beast of myth begin to roam English and Scottish woods once more.
With growing worry over the impacts on both people and the countryside, the boar's right to exist in Britain has been heavily debated. Their habitat-regenerating actions benefit a host of other wildlife, yet unlike beavers, these ecosystem engineers remain unloved by many. Why is there no clamour to reintroduce them across the land? And, with the few boar in England threatened by poaching and culling, why are we not doing more to prevent their re-extinction?
In Groundbreakers, Chantal Lyons moves to the boar's stronghold of the Forest of Dean to get up close and personal with this complex, intelligent and quirky species, and she meets with people across Britain and beyond who celebrate their presence – or want them gone. From Toulouse and Barcelona where they are growing in number and boldness, to the woods of Kent and Sussex where they are fading away again, to Inverness-shire where rewilders welcome them, join Chantal on a journey of discovery as she reveals what it might take for us to coexist with wild boar.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
PART ONE: PAST AND PRESENT
Chapter 1: An End and a Beginning
Chapter 2: A Wild Boar Chase
Chapter 3: Guys, Dolls and Humbugs
Chapter 4: Monstrous Appetites
Chapter 5: Re-Pigging
Chapter 6: This Is Our Land
Chapter 7: The Boar People (Part I)
Chapter 9: Mad About the Boar
Chapter 8: The Boar People (Part II)
Chapter 10: To Kill a Boar
PART TWO: FUTURES
Chapter 11: A Bamboche of Boar
Chapter 12: Mind-Forged Fences
Chapter 13: Losing Them Again
Chapter 14: The Risks of Being Alive
Epilogue
About the Author :
Chantal Lyons is a naturalist, writer and science communicator. Having grown up in the tidy countryside of Kent, her encounters with the growing rewilding movement opened her eyes to the potential for restoring nature in Britain, and inspired her to study the relations between people and wild boar in the Forest of Dean. She currently lives in Cheltenham, never too far from the boar.
Review :
Deeply researched and beautifully written.
Groundbreakers is rich with scientific and social understanding, sharp evocations of natural places and a great deal of self-knowledge. In its focus, depth, clarity and range of enquiry, it is one of the most notable works of recent nature writing.
Magnificent. An elegant, enlivening and profoundly on-point portrait of a forgotten icon, and our struggle to reconcile ourselves to its return. Read cover to cover with absolute relish.
Written with great passion and insight, Groundbreakers examines the joys and challenges that come with living alongside resurgent Wild Boar ... A timely and vital addition to the conservation writing canon.
I've had the privilege of reading this book in advance, and I can tell you it's a gem.
The wild boar is lucky to have Lyons.
Groundbreakers is a real page-turner, as Chantal Lyons delves back in time and forward into the future to tell the fascinating story of Britain's only truly big, fierce mammal: the wild boar.
Groundbreakers is a charming and impressively balanced account that's as important for our society as rootings are to the forest floor
A well-researched, important, and intimate study of the frequently misunderstood wild boar. With a burgeoning human population, Lyons does not shy away from the issues of their increasing spread into our midst, writing with balance and humour, as well as concern for the future welfare of this fascinating keystone species.
A fine book about a very interesting species ... This boarish book is neither borish nor boring.
Meticulously researched, carefully judged and passionately argued, in Groundbreakers Chantal Lyons unleashes a sounder of captivating prose. An unflinching book on both the challenges and triumphs of rewilding and a fascinating exploration of Britain's forests and their wildest inhabitants.
A fascinating, joyful study of one of the less glamorous cover stars of the rewilding movement. In this balanced and thoughtful book, we are invited to be bolder and braver in our relationship to the natural world, and not to fear change in a changing world - especially with an animal that has, until just a few centuries ago, helped engineer our collective landscape.
A marvellous book … It is both timely and profound.
A delightful, page-turning, exploration of nature's resilience, that asks all the right questions about the future of natural history on these isles.
Conversations about whether we should or should not have wild boar in Britain are redundant now. They're already here, and this rich and readable book goes a long way towards helping us understand our new neighbours.
If you, like me, were unaware that “repigging” might just be the key to reviving Europe's biodiversity, then prepare to have your eyes opened by this warm and intrepid book. Groundbreakers is a charming, compulsively readable tribute to an unlikely keystone species.
The whole hog ... Groundbreakers is rich in evocative accounts of Lyons' own solitary, wonder-charged encounters with the elusive animals
Groundbreakers is an inspiring book on many levels. Not only did it have me rooting for the wild boar, whose return to our depleted countryside is clearly an ecological necessity; it also made me think long and hard about our relationship with the natural world and why we all need more wildness in our lives. Beautifully written, combining the authority of a serious naturalist with the poetry, humour and curiosity of a seriously gifted writer. I loved it.
This captivating book will become increasingly relevant … Lyons writes beautifully, her research has been exhaustive and she employs commendable balance on an emotive subject. This is sure to become a classic of nature writing. Highly recommended.
I really enjoyed this book and if you, like me, want to learn more about this species, this is for you.
If you think that the rural environment holds no more surprises, think again. Even better, read the amazing Groundbreakers.
A fascinating read with a totally engaging and exciting flowing narrative. I guarantee it will make you think, and not just about wild boar.
This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the status of Wild Boar in the UK.
