Name: Wilding with Isabella Tree
Start: 2025-03-07T19:30:00+00:00
End: 2025-03-07T21:00:00+00:00
Location: 2 Ifield Street,Crawley,RH11 0NN,GB

Join us for a conversation with Isabella Tree, co-owner of The Knepp Estate to discuss their pioneering rewilding project
Join WORDfest for a conversation with Isabella Tree.
Isabella Tree is an award-winning writer and conservationist who lives with her husband, Charlie Burrell, in the middle of a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex. She is author of six non-fiction books, including the 2018 Richard Jefferies Society Literature Award-winning book Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm that was voted in the top ten science books for 2018 by The Smithsonian and made into a documentary film in 2024.
Her subsequent The Book of Wilding - a practical guide to rewilding big and small , (Bloomsbury, 2023), co-authored with Charlie, has been described as ‘a handbook of hope’ and ‘a manual that builds hope for a better, wilder world’.
In 2020 Isabella was awarded a CIEEM Medal for her contribution to ecology and environmental management, and in 2021 received the Royal Geographical Society’s Ness Award. Isabella and Charlie were jointly awarded the Zoological Society of London’s Silver Medal ‘for outstanding contributions to the understanding and appreciation of zoology’ in 2023.
Her latest book is a children’s version of Wilding, illustrated by Angela Harding and published by PanMacmillan. She is currently writing The Return of the White Stork about their reintroduction of white storks to Britain after an absence of more than 600 years.
The interview will discuss the journey of why the need was there to think dramatically about changing traditional approaches; of how they transformed the estate into a place where nature thrives but is still a sustainable farm; the impact the rewilding project has had upon other farms and locations across the country and beyond; what lessons they have learnt - both successful and difficult - throughout the process, as well as what the future holds for Knepp and farming in general.
There will be the opportunity to ask Isabella questions, followed by book sales by The Bookshop, East Grinstead and signing by Isabella.