2.5 Nick Hayes: The Book of Trespass

Hello, my love! Welcome to series 2 episode 5 of Prompted by Nature.

This week, I speak with Nick Hayes, author of the amazing new book Book of Trespass. Nick Hayes works as both an author and illustrator, and can convey an incredible amount of emotional context with a few very expressive images. Quiet and spare or bold and busy, all of his work comes across as thoughtful and sensitive. Nick specialises in providing lino prints, conceptual work and traditional illustrations for the children’s publishing, newspaper and magazine industries and he worked with Penguin Random House, The Guardian, New Statesman, British Council, Radio Times.

A little on the Book of Trespass: The vast majority of England is out-of-bounds. By law of trespass, we are excluded from 92 per cent of its land and 97 per cent of its waterways, blocked by walls whose legitimacy is rarely questioned. In The Book of Trespass, Nick Hayes takes us on an expansive 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, he offers a passionate defence of the natural world and reveals the real story behind its KEEP OUT signs. Packed with shocking statistics and weaving together the stories of poachers, gypsies, witches, ravers, migrants, ramblers, naturalists and campaigners, The Book of Trespass is a vivid exploration of the ownership of England, and a defence of everybody's right to access its great outdoors. Nick passionately believes that the great outdoors should be for everyone and can talk about the political, historical and social dimensions of unequal ownership of land, as well as his campaigning for land reform and his own trespassing tales from across the UK.

In this conversation, we discuss:

What the book is about The concept of Trespass and the impact of the fence The link between our relationship with nature and our responsibility to it The importance of knowing one’s rights when it comes to the land The coincidence of land ownership and gender inequality The need for governments to encourage towards nature by opening up private land to the public The Crow Act and the responsibility for land-owners to provide open space for the public The mental health benefits of nature and the knock-on effects of access to nature Drawing as ‘meditation with your eyes open’ His Right to Roam campaign

And 90s Eddie Izzard comedy even gets a mention!

With everything happening over at Benfield right now, this was a topic close to my heart so it was great to chat to Nick about land and our access to it in this way. And while we’re on the subject of Benfield Valley, I wrote an open letter to my local MPs and planning committee last week so if you’d like to have a read and take inspiration from it for your own letter of protest, it’s int he writing section of my website - link in show notes.

You can find Nick over on his Instagram @nickhayesillustrationr and can buy Book of Trespass published by Bloomsbury anywhere you get your books - although always try and buy from an independent seller!  you can find out about the Right to Roam campaign over on Nick's website www.righttoroam.org.uk.

As always, you can find me over on insta @prompted.by.nature or on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Remember to stick around until the end when I’ll share the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you after.

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Hello!  In this meditation and writing prompt you will be guided through a breathing practice designed to move out of the 'fight or flight' state and into the 'rest and digest' state of the nervous system.

We begin by focusing in on the breath and encouraging it to slow down and then move through the senses (sound, touch, smell and sight) to engage fully with the nature around us.

You can do this indoors or outdoors but it's designed to use in an outdoor setting in your garden, on a balcony or in a local green space in which you feel safe.  Remember to have a comfortable something to sit on and bring your notebook and a pen!

Please feel free to share your writing with me by contacting me through my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk/contact or over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature

Happy writing!

Helen x