Once Upon a Raven's Nest: a life on Exmoor in an epoch of change (Paperback)

This is a rich, beautiful and deeply moving book. I read it in one sitting, then was sorry that I had not drawn it out for longer, as I enjoyed it so much. - George Monbiot

From the wonderfully evocative title to the heart-rending yet spirit-lifting conclusion, Catrina examines, with great empathic power, how colossal forces work on the individual. In one man, we are shown vast epochal change; in him, we see the concerns and defiance and activities that were once considered as solely the province of gods. A brilliant and necessary book. - Niall Griffiths

Stunning. Urgent. Unforgettable. Through this complex and loving portrait of a rural working man, Catrina Davies gives voice to all that has been lost and damaged in his lifetime, ours. She is a true successor to John Berger in writing with love and anger on behalf of threatened species and communities. - Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep

Once Upon a Raven's Nest is a genuinely captivating tale of rural-lore - told through the thrilling narrative of one man's life; a good ol' country boy, a right character whose scraps and scrapes litter the pages. Chainsaws and tractors and torn love affairs fill the book, as Tommy's story is laid bare in a series of episodes and fractured snapshots carefully scattered within a timescale of environmental decline. There is a tough, brutal beauty here in Davies' depiction of the ways of the British countryside but love, and delight and the best of humanity, too. - James Canton

Original and powerful, I loved this book. This is a beautiful, powerful and truly original book which is nature writing at it's truest and finest. - Clover Stroud

This has the unmistakable smell of a classic. Davies has restored my flagging faith in the ability of language to tell the unvarnished truth. Here's a book worthy of Exmoor ravens and rivers and of the big, bold, dignified story it tells. I have no higher praise. - Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild, Being a Human and Being a Beast

There is a raw energy here which is very appealing. Exmoor very rough and very ready. Pulses with life at every turn. Expertly told, the fragmentary collision Of lives and a planet, deer, salmon, trees, tractors and a chainsaw or two. Exmoor verbatim as you never seen it before. Outdoors means out doors. - James Crowden

Superb . . . listen to Tommy, recorded or scripted by Davies, and something gripping and honest emerges . . . a vivid picture of nature in the raw. - Spectator

It is a beguiling, earthy tale of a lost world, one rarely examined in print. Hedley's outlandish yarns about brawling and risk-taking mix with stories that reveal his complex relationship with nature. - Independent (April Book of the Month)

A tremendous book, both gritty and lyrical and often darkly funny - Daily Mail