The gripping and inspirational story of a man risking prison to rescue Britain's orchid species, Jacob's irresistible mix of memoir and nature writing sheds much needed light on some of the nation's most enigmatic plants.
Longlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation 2023
Ben Jacob is an orchid thief. He spends his life (and risks prison) tracking down rare orchids and rescuing them from unwitting destruction on the building sites and greenbelt developments of Britain. This is his story.
Ben fell in love with orchids as a nine-year-old, when his parents bought him a Cymbidium. That love then led him to spend his twenties in various tropical cities, teaching English and exploring jungles where exotic orchid species grew wild, pollinated by hummingbirds, huge moths and more. After a decade abroad, Ben returned to the UK. Here, his passion re-ignited when he encountered a colony of Bee orchids, a cryptic species which tricks bees into mating with its flowers. Ben was entranced. Having long seen Britain's orchids as pale imitations of their tropical cousins, he changed his mind completely and set out to find and photograph all fifty-one British species.
Reading and learning everything he could, Ben realised that Britain's orchids are in desperate trouble. Some, such as Summer's Lady Tresses, have gone extinct; others, such as the magnificently strange Ghost Orchid, have not been seen since 2009; all have experienced vertiginous declines. Changes in land use and climate are responsible, but so too are Britain's outdated environmental and planning laws, which seem incapable of protecting rare species in the face of the drive to build new homes and infrastructure.
That's how Ben turned outlaw. He began saving orchids slated for destruction, digging them out in the middle of the night and replanting them in safe places, all this while knowing that the work he was doing was illegal, for if arrested Ben could have been fined GBP5,000 for each wild orchid plant he saved, and he might even have faced prison.
Part memoir, part fascinating history of our most exotic and yet overlooked flower, this is nature writing with a real story. Ben shares with us his mission, and raises urgent questions about our environmental legislation.
The world needs more Bens.
Publisher: John Murray Press
ISBN: 9781399802260
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 549 g
Dimensions: 240 x 164 x 32 mm
A daring, delightful and galvanising call to save the world, one plant at a time - The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice
It's noble work in a time of great change. The Orchid Outlaw urges us to look closer and tread more carefully - Alice Vincent, New Statesman
If this doesn't turn into one of the most talked about nature books of the year, I'll eat my hat. Brilliantly written, urgent and brave - Lee Schofield, author of WILD FELL
A vivid love letter to Britain's wild orchids . . . Ben Jacob breaks all the rules with enormous success - FRANCIS PRYOR, Time Team and author of THE MAKING OF THE BRITISH LANDSCAPE
The Orchid Outlaw . . . offers captivating descriptions of pre-dawn forays on to private land where housing developments will soon obliterate colonies of precious orchids - Financial Times, Best new books on climate and the environment
The book is written with a skip and drama, and will leave you furious that these strange and delicate plants have been so neglected - Mail on Sunday
A brave, timely and inspiring example of how to exercise our moral obligation to care for the non-human beings we share the world with. The Orchid Outlaw is an empowering tonic to the environmental despair evoked by the lack of leadership from our lawmakers - Leif Bersweden, author of Where the Wild Flowers Grow
So many varieties of orchids growing in our British climate - who knew!!! I always believed they only grew in hot and exotic climes. This book, of one man’s passion for them and his mission to save and preserve them... More
I didn’t expect to spend my days off from bookselling scanning the local hedgerows for signs of native British orchids…but here we are! The Orchid Outlaw is the perfect combination of memoir and informative nature... More
As someone else who unexpectedly fell in love with our native orchids thanks to finding Bee orchids in my lawn, I knew I’d enjoy this book. I was wrong though, I LOVED it. Some bits had me chuckling away - the... More
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?