Part memoir and part call to arms. Daltun bought a farm on the Beara peninsula, in the far southwest of Ireland. He dug out the rhododendrons, fenced off the sheep and feral goats, and watched nature take the land back. Soon a rich ecosystem emerged.

This review captures the essence of Daltun’s journey and the profound realization that drives his work: the need to reconnect with and protect the natural world. By purchasing a farm on the Beara Peninsula and allowing the land to revert to its natural state, Daltun has demonstrated how ecosystems can flourish when given the space and time to recover. The transformation of his land into a thriving temperate rainforest, a rare and endangered ecosystem in Ireland, serves as both a personal victory and a broader commentary on conservation.

Ireland’s natural habitat is rainforest — of the temperate rather than the tropical kind. But so little of it is left, and that little is under threat. We bemoan the destruction of the Amazon but fail to realise what has been done in our own backyard.