NOEMA | C Thoby
My explanation begins with “The Book of Trespass”: an irreverent travelog documenting a series of trespasses in which author Nick Hayes walks, paddles and camps across notable English estates. Hayes interweaves these infiltrations with the story of England’s unequal, secretive, entrenched system of land ownership. This regime underpins a host of social and environmental indicators, from housing prices (historically high) to biodiversity (historically low). So what kind of sorcery, Hayes asks, results in under 1% of the population owning 50% of the land while some 92% of land and 97% of rivers remain illegal for the public to access under the 2000 Countryside and Rights of Way Act — with scarcely a peep of political resistance?