When the Wild Things Returned

Isabella Tree

Isabella Tree is an award-winning writer and conservationist, and lives with her husband, Charlie Burrell, in the middle of a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex. She is author of six adult non-fiction books, including the bestseller Wilding. Her latest book, co-authored with Charlie, The Book of Wilding – a practical guide to rewilding big and small, is published by Bloomsbury. A children’s version of Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back, illustrated by Angela Harding, was published by Macmillan Children’s Books in March 2024.

Charlie Burrell

Charlie Burrell is the co-owner of Knepp Estate. Charlie inherited the 3,500-acre estate from his grandparents in the 1980’s and is the inspiration behind the Knepp Wildland Project. Having run Knepp Home Farm for 20 years, Charlie had a dramatic change of heart after a visit to the Oostvaardersplassen project in Holland in the 1990s and saw the potential for a similar “rewilding” project at home in Sussex.

Charlie is chair of the Romanian rewilding project, Foundation Conservation Carpathia, and is on the board of Rewilding Britain, The Arcadia Fund, Ingleby Farms Environment Committee, the Endangered Landscapes Programme and the Bronze Oak Project.

Hannah MacInnes