For four years, John Lewis-Stempel has managed a piece of woodland in the southwest of Herefordshire, following the example of our ancestors - as was customary in pre-industrial times. In this just three and a half hectares of mixed forest, the author hunts, prunes trees, and raises pigs and cows. This is the diary of the last year. John Lewis-Stempel has become familiar with the forest. He knows it from the roots of the beech trees to the crowns of the oaks and all the animals that live there: the vixen, the pheasants, the wood mice, and the tawny owls. For many species of animals and plants, forests like Cockshutt Wood are the last refuge. And the author also finds his home here. Reading in the forest means spending a year amidst the trees and surrounded by their inhabitants. Whether it’s autumn, spring, summer, or winter: Cockshutt Wood is a piece of woodland one never wants to leave.