"Thoughtful and powerful, this beautiful historical novel carries our natural world at its heart as it examines the brutal reshaping of a gentleman’s parkland from a woman’s perspective."
In this story that is both gentle yet provocative, with a roar of quiet fury hear of a woman’s rebellion, a hero of an oak tree, and a landscape remade by human hands. Hannah Sentance begins to despair as she watches her husband transform his estate into a manicured parkland. Author Anne Keer has the ability to take you by the hand and lead you to a place of sanctuary and defiance.
She obviously has a deep abiding love for nature which shines through every word on the page. The natural world and countryside ways of a past life are dizzying and beautiful in their intensity. As Hannah narrates and journals her story, I was not only taken into the past, I was encouraged to feel our present and look into the future.
This tale set as it is in a moment in time, travels the heartbeat of years, of survival. The clever and thought-provoking ending caused both heart ache and hope. The Wildness is a powerful historical novel of great beauty as it details a woman’s rebellion in a disappearing landscape.
As the Enlightenment dawns, Hannah Sentance finds herself increasingly disturbed by her husband Walter's unyielding desire to transform the land around their estate into an elite Gentleman's Park. Local people will be evicted, an old way of life lost and an ancient oak tree felled. A symbol of resistance, wildness and a young woman's love affair with nature, the tree embodies Hannah's struggle for a way of belonging.
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
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Closing date: 31/10/2026
As the Enlightenment dawns, Hannah Sentance finds herself increasingly disturbed by her husband Walter's unyielding desire to transform the land around their estate into an elite Gentleman's Park. Local people will be evicted, an old way of life lost and an ancient oak tree felled.
The Wildness features in the following genres: Book Club Recommendations, Debut Books of the Month, Debuts, Recommendations, General Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: Social issues
Paperback. £9.89, down from the £10.99 cover price. In Stock.
The Wildness was written by Anne Keer and published by Honno Press
The Wildness has 321 pages
£9.89, reduced from £10.99. In Stock.
