What could be simpler than buying a house in the country? When Sol, a city financier, purchases Bothan Faobhar on a whim, he discovers a world where the neighbours are both distant and at odds with his urban ideals. With no mobile signal, no electricity, water that runs brown, it is an existence that he quickly realises he is ill-prepared for. Can someone like Sol survive here? And then there is the mysterious previous occupant, G, who seems not to have left. Who is G? Why does he stay in contact with Sol? And, why does everyone think that the house chose Sol and not the other way around? This is the story of Sol's introspective journey from self-obsessed investor to outwards-looking naturalist with a deepening knowledge and interest in the wild world just beyond his own doorstep, starting with the visitation of a Scottish wildcat. It is about the wildlife of Britain, rural communities and folk music, and the need to protect them all from certain extinction. It is also about a man who buys a house.

Woodlands have dominated much of the British landscape for thousands of years since the recession of the last ice age, and yet so few of us spend enough time in them to understand how much of our native wildlife is adapted to live with trees. The inspiration of naturalists, poets and artists, woodlands have often been removed, changed or marginalised to make way for 'progress', and from within our suburbs and garden plots we rarely spend time appreciating their wildlife, and yet it is still there waiting to be discovered. This book is a guide to where you can find that often hidden wildlife. Leslie Kent, a Biology teacher by trade and amateur ecologist, reveals just how easy it can be to find wild things even in the middle of a city, if only you take the time to look for it.