What right to roam? Experience a thought-provoking dive into the British countryside by Patrick Galbraith

How much access do we really have to the countryside’s green spaces, are we ‘locked out’, is restricted access necessary? An author and journalist with a national reputation has unpacked the debate with his new book.

Uncommon Ground by Patrick Galbraith examines the right to roam of Britain’s green and pleasant spaces, how much is really accessible, the people on both sides and the debates and meets fascinating characters along the way from protestors to poachers.

Subtitled ‘rethinking our relationship with the countryside’, the book takes us on Patrick’s extraordinary three year investigative tour of rural Britain to uncover the truth, melding history, politics and polemic in a  journey that takes us from the Western Isles to Dorset and from the Anglo Saxon period right through to the present day.

Devon readers can find out more from the man himself when he the author, editor and Country Life journalist will be speaking at an evening event at The Bookery in Crediton on Thursday, May 22.

In January 2023 the largest UK land access demonstration since the 1930s took place on Dartmoor. Those who led the protest want open access to all of rural Britain. They believe that access will help nature by allowing the public to hold landowners and farmers to account and they argue that it will have no impact on wildlife.

Many disagree - but where does the truth really lie? Are those on the other side of the debate, the farmers, conservationists and landowners who worry about public access, misguided? And what does ‘access’ mean? How much is there? Are we locked out of the countryside, as some claim, or not?

In Uncommon Ground, Patrick Galbraith unpacks the debate, seeking out the voices seldom heard in this debate – voices that are often closer to the issues at hand.

He also seeks to understand why access to the land matters and how our relationship with the land is integral to British culture.

He heads out with poachers, meets landowners and foxhunters, he wanders naked with naturists, and he spends time with activists calling for a total abolition of the right to own land. He also interviews politicians, historians and conservationists, many of whom have mixed feelings about the contemporary access campaign.

Patrick will be speaking at The Bookery in Crediton High Street on Thursday, May 22 at 7pm. To book tickets, please got to https://thebookery.org.uk/event/patrick-galbraith-uncommon-ground/