The memory of the way that the landscape and natural world used to be, has almost faded from our collective memories.

The rewilding solutions in this book are a win win for everyone and I hope we can get the political will soon to make these changes. There is only a problem if, for example, achieving SSSI targets becomes an excuse for not going further, engaging in the bigger debates. Now in its seventh year, the prize is awarded annually to the book which most successfully inspires readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world, with a new prize added to reflect the growing cry for action to meet climate change targets and halt the destruction of wildlife and natural habitats. In many areas, the landscape changes happened so long ago that nobody remembers the land in a less altered state.Forget rewilding, this is hoped to be the beginning of a vital rebirding of the nation’s back gardens.

Species that in my childhood were famous and abundant – wood warblers and pied flycatchers – are now virtually gone. British birds have evolved over millennia, part of the ecosystem which developed as the glaciers retreated, then as humans settled and farmed. It also shows how urgently our attitudes towards nature and conservation need to change in this country to prevent the collapse of ecosystems and build nature back up.Sir David Attenborough's Our Planet (Netflix), a series I worked on for three years, was awarded two Emmy's in 2019. At the other corners are George Monbiot’s Feral which sets the big picture and opened many of our eyes to the ideas and the possibilities on a grand scale, and Isabella Tree’s Wilding which is a more detailed account of a more constrained place by the team who are actually making rewilding work on their ground.

But some people have had enough, there is a growing backlash against the vested interests and status quo; Benedict MacDonald is amongst that number. Such environments are highly productive, and British fens were rich enough to be the redoubts of giants. Let’s be the first generation since we colonised Britain to leave our children better off for wildlife,” Macdonald exhorts.Such reactions are, in their own way, an expression of the wish to reconnect with nature and let wildlife simply do its own thing. The Song of the Dodo brilliantly showcases island biogeography and tells stories of evolution, destruction and extinction. To aim for one self-sustaining colony of Dalmatian pelicans by 2050 would be enormously ambitious — but also achievable.