For everyone who dreams of escape to a cabin by a stream, for those moments of tranquility while the natural world does its thing around you ...

Some moments in childhood are frozen in time, vivid and vital, an anchor. When James Aldred tracked down an old Romani wagon he once played in, he found himself inside one such moment again. However broken and rotten, it transported him to a magical summer in the New Forest forty years ago and awakened in him the possibility of reliving it with his young family.

In his evocative memoir, Aldred chronicles his return to a cherished landscape. As he painstakingly restores the wagon, learning from local crafts people, he delves into both the New Forest's natural history and storied past, tracing its roots back to the 16th century and even further to the time of William the Conqueror. Camera traps reveal otters hunting in the brook nearby, while the nearby goshawk nest and fox earth speak to the area's thriving wildlife.

Masterfully observed, A Wagon in the Woods is a celebration of both people and place, and the timeless bond between land, history and the enduring spirit of adventure.

A riveting account of a years-long quest to reconnect with a much-loved place in nature through sheer effort and determination; an epic of mud and wood and water. -- Neil Ansell, author of The Circling Sky
An epic adventure on an intimate scale. Aldred's warm and vivid descriptions of family, fellowship, craft and most of all a lifelong love of nature evoke Roger Deakin. Enchanting. -- Callum Robinson, author of Ingrained

James Aldred grew up on the edge of the New Forest and spent his teenage years exploring it. By fifteen he was building forest shelters, sleeping rough in the woods and spending much of his time up in the branches of trees. These days, he works in the treetops as an Emmy award-winning wildlife cameraman working regularly with National Geographic and the BBC, collaborating on many landmark natural history programmes with David Attenborough. He is also the author of The Man Who Climbs Trees and Goshawk Summer, for which he won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2022. He lives with his family near Bristol and enjoys returning to the Forest to share it with his wife and sons whenever he can.