Burn

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What to expect

A frank and inspiring memoir about letting go of what we're told to want, risking everything to find happiness and the brutal salve of nature.

Ben Short has a successful career in advertising, a flat in a trendy part of London, a flashy motorbike. But after years of suffering with anxiety, he's a wreck. A drastic change is needed.

For a time, he finds solace working with a forester, then as an apprentice to a Gypsy woodman, setting up home in a dilapidated wagon with just a rescue dog for company. However, it is not until he feels the call of the furnace, a glowing charcoal kiln in the Dorset woods, that he can truly re-forge his thoughts, put the years of suffering behind him, and start afresh by immersing himself in the old ways of woods and fire.

Exquisitely written and deeply honest, Burn is a hopeful story of transformation, a celebration of manual work and craft, and a love letter to the English countryside.

(p)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critics Review

  • Lyrical, moving and never self-pitying . . . a lovely book.

    The Times

  • Short’s story is as much about work as it is escape and landscape; he illuminates the value of doing rather than thinking. Beautifully written, Burn is melancholy and hopeful in equal measure. Like taking a forest ramble in changeable weather, reading it leaves you feeling ruffled but alive

    Mail on Sunday

  • An intriguing, touching and beautifully written book, about how it feels to be in a dark place spiritually, to move into the woods but enter an increasingly lighter place, to be practising the ancient skills of coppicing and charcoal burning, to love a dog.

    Ruth Pavey

  • In this candid memoir, [Ben] learns the benefits of living simply . . . above all, Ben discovers the joys of risking everything in the search for personal happiness.

    The Countryman

  • A most excellent read. Destined to become a classic in its field, much like Walter Rose’s memoir, The Village Carpenter

    Sean Hellman

  • An extraordinary and powerful book, full of vitality. Every page celebrates the way traditional skills can shape who we are.

    Tristan Gooley

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