***LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2026***

'Full of gems - I'll never again look at a field and think: 'It's just a patch of grass'' SPECTATOR

'A wonderful leap, with a wise guide, into the green we thought we knew' TRISTAN GOOLEY

'Wright is a joyful companion' CAROLINE QUENTIN

A sparkling green field. A dull and scrubby patch of grass. One is the sanitised evidence of monoculture, the other a world teeming with more life than you could ever imagine.

Join John Wright, one of our best-known naturalists, as he uncovers the beauty and rich diversity of Britain's grasslands. Bursting with mushrooms, lichen and wildflowers, home to butterflies, bees and beetles, and vital to foxes and birds alike, these grasslands are part of our natural heritage.

From meadows to mires to heathlands, John Wright introduces them in all their variety: the history of how grasslands came to be, what can be found there, what we risk with their loss and what can be done to save what is left. Most of all, he shows why we should care. Because grasslands are never just patches of grass.