The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us by Nick Hayes

The vast majority of our country is entirely unknown to us because we are banned from setting foot on it. By law of trespass, we are excluded from 92 per cent of the land and 97 per cent of its waterways, blocked by walls whose legitimacy is rarely questioned. But behind them lies a story of enclosure, exploitation and dispossession of public rights whose effects last to this day. The Book of Trespass takes us on a journey over the walls of England, into the thousands of square miles of rivers, woodland, lakes and meadows that are blocked from public access. By trespassing the land of the media magnates, Lords, politicians and private corporations that own England, Nick Hayes argues that the root of social inequality is the uneven distribution of land. Weaving together the stories of poachers, vagabonds, gypsies, witches, hippies, ravers, ramblers, migrants and protesters, and charting acts of civil disobedience that challenge orthodox power at its heart, The Book of Trespass will transform the way you see the land.

I mean, yeah, it's a good book. Lifts the lid on the sources of wealth from a random sampling of unbelievably rich / landed families. Bangs you over the head with the point a bit and gets repetitive; jumped over a wall, discussed the dark history of the owner's wealth, smoked a joint, had a sausage, repeat for the next chapter. The chapters when he talks about other trespass movements like Greenham and Kinder Scout are a lot more engaging, the stuff where he's just having a cheeky overnighter in someone's woods while justifying it by reference to the fact it's all built on stolen riches... it gets a bit self indulgent. There's an amusing bit where he says something along the lines of ‘seeing the keep out and private property signs gave me a weird feeling I was doing something wrong for a moment'. Bit of an odd, one-sided mindset. I enjoyed it overall though, it did contain some really interesting stuff and it does make you see walls and fences in a different light, as implements of oppression. The Calais chapter was great. Notice the pattern though, the best bits are where the author gets out of the way of the topic he's trying to cover.

Oh, and the illustrations - beautiful, unique, wonderful illustrations! You can really breathe them in and spend a moment gazing at these worlds. Except whoever put the book together decided these double page spreads should be placed mid-sentence, so when you turn the page you either have to skip the illustration to carry on reading, or have to stop reading to look at the picture and then flick back a page to pick up where you were cut off. Why not put them between chapters?!?

Despite the fact I've said a lot of negative stuff I did enjoy it on the whole, the source and distribution of much of the nation's wealth is an important thing to address. The overall theme of examining how land ownership interlinks with rights and power more generally is really interesting. The fact that this land and these rights were taken from common ownership and essentially privatised should be more widely recognised and taught.

I'll be honest with you, I'm not much of a reader of non-fiction so in a bookstore I would totally have just walked pass the book. As it is, the book became available on Pigeonhole and the title and description of the book intrigued me so I signed up for it.

I am so glad I did because it turned out to be a brilliant read. There are so many new things about England and the land around us that I knew nothing about that. It was fascinating reading about how certain aristocrats and other such people came to own their lands (not in a fair way!).

It also made me sad how us ‘common people' were walked all over when it comes to land ownership and how despite all this empty space around us you'll still hear the people higher up complain that we don't have enough space! The treatment of slaves was another heartbreaker!

I loved the way the book was written with a mix of law, history and personal anecdotes. I also loved the descriptiveness of the places our author visited. I loved the drawings Nick shared with us too. They were impressive.

This was a brilliant book and I would really urge everyone to read it!

Thank you to Pigeonhole and Nick Hayes for the chance to read this amazing book.