An incredibly moving book. To find peace and a sense of home between the sea and the stars after a life so profoundly affected by the housing crisis, is truly inspirational.' This is a beautiful, powerful and truly original book which is nature writing at it’s truest and finest.’ – Clover Stroud The narrative is interwoven with a sequence of factual entries that chart the impending climate catastrophe and the consequences of our collective choices to ignore the warning of an environment on the verge of collapse. Once Upon a Raven’s Nest is an account of an epoch of change; of the earth and of a human life. It is the story of a working class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor, and of the planet during the period of its great acceleration towards the current climate emergency.

Once Upon a Raven's Nest is the story of a working class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor, and of the planet during the period of its great acceleration towards the current climate emergency. This is a rich, beautiful and deeply moving book. I read it in one sitting, then was sorry that I had not drawn it out for longer, as I enjoyed it so much’ – George Monbiot In addition to being an author, you are also a musician. Tell us how living in the West Country inspires you. Once Upon a Raven’s Nest is the story of a working class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor, and of the planet during the period of its great acceleration towards the current climate emergency.

At the beginning of each chapter you have also included factual entries about climate change. How did you come up with idea, and why do you think it works so well? Superb: a compellingly readable reflection on what it means to be alive in a mortuary, free in a society of slaves, and on place, home, relationship, and our need for the surging wild. Angry and kind; poised and desperate; urgent and vital. Davies can help us all to get a life. We need her.'

Catrina Davies came to know Hector Ralph Collard in the last years of his life. Born in 1955 to a rural, working class family in Somerset, he was someone we'd understand as a true countryman, spending his life on the land, hunting, working and appreciating the natural world. He lived life to the full and was a risk taker, ultimately paralysed by the last in a series of accidents. Dependent on the tender care of friends and family, he was frustrated by his immobility but was still watching, noticing and recording his local environment. The story of a working-class man from Exmoor, whose lifetime spanned the period of the great acceleration and whose childhood took place in a world exponentially different to our own. We learn of his accumulation of engines, tools and guns, the complexity of his connection to nature, the animals he loved and his desire to hunt them. He recounts the terrible consequences of his fatal attraction to risk and machinery which led to his being paralysed for the last years of his life, confined to a wheelchair, hopelessly dependent but still watching, noticing, recording, loving the world. An articulate and beautifully written account from the heart of the housing disaster, told at the last point we can choose to change.' In Davies’s miraculous retelling of Thomas Hedley’s life it is as if a world has been remembered rather than written. Once Upon A Raven’s Nest is an unforgettable history of a life that is almost lost and an account of the destruction man has wrought on the earth in the time that Hedley worked the land.You’ve been privileged to ‘see’ Exmoor National Park through Thomas’ eyes, how has this perspective altered your personal view of Exmoor? There is a raw energy here which is very appealing. Exmoor very rough and very ready. Pulses with life at every turn. Expertly told, the fragmentary collision of lives and a planet, deer, salmon, trees, tractors and a chainsaw or two. Exmoor verbatim as you never seen it before. Outdoors means out doors…’ – James Crowden This book is star witness for a generation whose lives have been so injured by the housing crisis. It is funny and furious, tender and true.'