Hmm I wanted to love this book. I hoped to get tips on how to live more naturally and understand the flora I see daily, but I was very disappointed.

I'm not sure who the intended audience was, or in fact what the point of the book.was. And full disclosure I didn't finish it - giving up about 50%. I hate giving up on books but I skipped ahead and realised the delivery wasn't improving so decided life was too short.

The book is written as a diary of the author's year living off the land - essentially what she can forage in her local area, which in theory is fascinating. She admits that she wouldn't have been able to live - calorie wise- on what she foraged at least in the winter. But luckily she also lived on a "spare venison hock" from the freezer, and wild boar steaks, a roe deer, pheasants, ducks, and squirrels given to her by her friends.

Each diary entry seemed to be a list of green things she had gathered that day, which after 25% of the book was not gripping reading. I felt it could have been improved by an extensive edit, perhaps some recipes or even some images of what these plants look like..

This book therefore couldn't be used as a 'guide', so perhaps it is intended to be inspirational?

As I say I'm not sure who the audience is for this book, but I highly suspect it wasn't me.

I thought this book would be right up my street and indeed it started well. Living for a year on foraged foods is an interesting experiment. However, by half way through I was finding it boringly repetitive and I really didn't think I could stand to read another description of a dish consisting of venison and mushrooms. I persisted, curious to know the results of the stool sample analyses, and was very disappointed that this was not in the conclusion of the book. It's frustrating to read a book about a year-long experiment where the scientific results are not revealed.

There are some beautiful descriptions of the Scottish countryside, and it was fascinating to learn just how many edible plants and funghi are out there. The writer is clearly knowledgeable on this point. However, I really lost patience with her dismissal of the vegan diet on the one hand, and calling for the reforestation of Scotland on the other. She advocates non-intensive animal agriculture, but it is this very model which has caused massive deforestation. .

In addition, I cannot see any justification for taking wild birds' eggs, and despite going back to see what she meant by 'egg points', I was none the wiser. As for the loving way she prepared dead animals, which she had not foraged/killed herself but was given by other people, and declarations of mutual respect between man and animal is self-justifying nonsense. This fellow feeling just cannot exist when one of the parties has been slaughtered to be eaten by the other.

This is a fascinating book. Mo Wilde sets out to eat only foraged food for a whole year. She starts quite spontaneously, without much planning or storing of foraged foods. And she starts in the winter when there is least availability of natural foods to collect!

I really liked the way the book is structured. It is set out in sections following the seasons and within that is written in diary style - not a chapter for every day, but each entry is dated. The story of the year gently unfolds with other stories woven in, which range from meetings with friends and family to the authors thoughts on big issues such as climate change. It is very clear that Mo has read widely about the things she writes about. Each chapter starts with a quotation from a text - very varied texts in fact from Walden to Graham Greene and Rachel Carson to Douglas Adams. As a committed reader I appreciate this alot. And then the text is reference to many relevant scientific papers. But the book doesn't read as an academic piece - it is very accessible, readable and relatable.

Having said that, a few times I found I was drifting a bit. There were a few points which seemed slightly repetitive. I was also a little disappointed that the lab results of the tests exploring the effects of this wild diet on the author's microbiome were not more thoroughly explained. This is why I rated the book as a four star rather than five star read.

Small spoiler now - my absolute favourite thing in this book is the idea of convincing people to eat organic food by offering them a glass of the permitted daily amount of pesticide and or herbicide to pour over their food like a dressing. Genius! I think this is one 'takeaway' from the book that will stay with me forever.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes memoirs and especially those which explore nature, health and the environment. This book sits on my mental bookshelf alongside others such as Wilding by Isabella Tree, Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell and many others.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If Adrian Mole was to write a foraging book... Thats how this feels to me.
Theres alot of intresting informaiton in this book, some of it was a little more than i needed but for anyone who likes to go out and enjoy what nature provides this is a must read

What a wonderful book! Very informative whilst also seeming cosy and uplifting. A real journey into the outdoors. Well written and descriptive, definitely a book you need on your shelves!

I really enjoyed this book and thought it was very unique in terms of the experience that the author describes. I’m passionate about nature and sustainability but I think I’d be interesting in this even if I wasn’t already interested in this topic. Attempting such an undertaking felt really bold and the author’s description of it is really compelling in places. Given her motivations, I felt that the subject was very topical and I found her recount of the whole experience very inspiring.

The journal style made the experience feel very immediate and I loved to travel through each day and season with her. It allowed us to experience her ups and downs, which made me want to read on.

The writing is beautifully descriptive; however, I did find it a little repetitive in places (we’re told several times at the start that she won’t eat butter) and I also felt that it was a little ‘preachy’ in places too, which was off-putting at times. Further to this, I think that some people might be put off by the many extraneous historical details, but I really, really enjoyed them (especially as I live near to the areas being described).

Overall, a very good read and one that I would definitely recommend to gardening friends and to our sustainability group at work who often forage (on a small scale) for wild food. I read this electronically so I’m not sure if the printed copy has more images but I would have loved to see illustrations of the wild food described.