Orchard cover art

Orchard

A Year in England’s Eden

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Orchard

By: Benedict Macdonald, Nicholas Gates
Narrated by: Mike Grady
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

By the Wainwright-Conservation-Prize-winning author of Rebirding

Spend a year in an orchard, celebrating its imperilled, overlooked abundance of life.

England's ancient orchards, collaborations between people and nature, are sources of hope for the future. Protecting them promises a far richer England for the centuries to come, for wildlife and for us.

As the seasons turn, a wealth of animals and plants are revealed: Bumble and solitary bees apartment-hunting in April; spotted flycatchers migrating in May; redstarts, hedgehogs and owls nesting in June; an explosion of life in the summer and the harvest and homespun cider-making in the autumn. And all throughout the year, the orchard’s human and animal inhabitants work together, creating one of the richest ecosystems left in Britain.

Explore this unique habitat throughout the course of a year, and marvel at the beauty and strength of nature.

©2020 Benedict Macdonald, Nicholas Gates (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Animals Biological Sciences Botany & Plants Ecosystems & Habitats Gardening & Horticulture Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Gardening Habitat

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Rebirding cover art
Cornerstones cover art
The Book of Wilding cover art
An Irish Nature Year cover art
Woodsman cover art
Wild Fell cover art
The Lost Rainforests of Britain cover art
Bringing Back the Beaver cover art
A Naturalist at Large cover art
Wonderland cover art
A Complete Guide to British Birds cover art
Birds, Beasts, and Bedlam cover art
Alien Worlds cover art
My Garden World cover art
The Nature of Oaks cover art
British Woodland cover art

Critic reviews

"Splendid." (Guardian)

"Visionary, illuminating and fascinating." (George Monbiot)

"You may not have come across Ben Macdonald before now; but believe me, you will hear a lot more from him in the future." (Stephen Moss)

All stars
Most relevant  
Fascinating and poetic, informative and thought provoking, I can’t recommend this book enough to anyone who loves nature or is lucky enough to own an orchard. I intend to buy hard copies for a lot of people. Brilliant reader too, I can dip into any section of the book and am instantly transported to this orchard, a truly magical place.

Just beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a lifelong lover of the natural world, I almost dread the prospect of reading yet another tale of doom and gloom regarding man's desecration of our beautiful planet. The description of this orchard is so touching but the fact that it seems to be an oasis in an ever encroaching green desert breaks my heart. I think there are some hopeful signs that some if us have woken up to this sad fact and are trying to make changes, but is it too little too late. Only time will tell.

beautiful but sad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What more can i say - i will listen to this over and over again.

A must listen to for all those who love nature

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As someone who lives near to the areas which are mentioned and has planted and grown their own orchard this year, it is a brilliant book to gather the tools by which to observe the changes I hope to come to my own place! I will be on the lookout for many of these natural marvels as the years go by!

A non-fiction Alice in Wonderland

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
found it easy on the ear jn fact so easy I sometimes dozed off. very educational

fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What an amazing listen - absolutely wonderful. Educational and inspiring. Intresting and calming.

The narration was superbly done. I loved listening to this whilst falling asleep or doing mineal tasks.
I've gained knowledge on the intricacies of nature.
It was beautiful.

Beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An absorbing and often sobering read. I was totally enthralled , well read and education too. Puts into perspective the nature unfriendly way of doing things.... Recommended!

Absorbing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
beautifully written and read. taking the reader deep into the experience of life through the seasons within a small area of orchard which has been allowed to grow naturally. it retains the biodiversity now lacking in commercial fruit growing and farming. not re-wilding, but allowing hedges to grow and fruit, giving food to so many species. dead wood and trees to remain as habitats, and this allows an abundance o f insects, birds, bats and animals which thrive. the authors take us to eastern Europe where gardens and farms we're still allows to be natural rather than tidied and groomed. wild life here is as it used to be in England' Eden.

the story of a year in the life of an Orchard

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
full of enthusiasm for the wildlife and interesting facts. fills you with awe at the intricacy of interaction in nature, joy that there are still such places in existence and sadness that they are so rare!

great read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I cannot recommend this enough. as a beginner to ecology and birdwatching I found it fascinating. So easy to listen to and read so warmly, I looked forward to reading it every day and was quite sad when it ended. A beautiful account of the life in the orchard.

Beautifully written book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews