The East Country is a work of creative nonfiction in which the acclaimed nature writer Jules Pretty integrates memoir, natural history, cultural critique, and spiritual reflection into a single compelling narrative. Pretty frames his book around Aldo Leopold and his classic A Sand County Almanac, bringing Leopold's ethic—that some could live without nature but most should not—into the twenty-first century. In The East Country, Pretty follows the seasons through seventy-four tales set in a variety of landscapes from valley to salty shore. Pretty convinces us that we should all develop long attachments to the local, observing that the land can change us for the better.

Jules Pretty is Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex. He is the author of many books,including The Edge of Extinction and This Luminous Coast, both from Comstock Publishing Associates, and The Earth Only Endures. He is coeditor most recently of Green Exercise.

His celebration of the landscape incorporates memoir and poetry, natural history and spiritual reflection, but also a critique of where current policies are leading us. ‘Nature will carry on regardless,’ he suggest. ‘It is just that we might not.’

I'm in step with Prof Jules Pretty. Who wouldn't be, when he rightly recognises the link between a healthy natural world and good mental health in humans – and trumpets the message? Like him, I love getting outdoors to feel the sun (and rain) on my skin and notice the different rhythm. You could say I've bought the T-shirt along with the waterproof walking boots and warm coat.