A history of the hedgerow and a love letter to weeds: the best books to celebrate spring

Whether you are after a novel or informative non-fiction, hope and renewal are in the air at last, writes Lia LeendertzSpring is on its way. Daylight hours will lengthen over the next few weeks and soon we will find ourselves standing outside at 5.30pm and saying: "It's light!" Birdsong will increase, blossom will burst out across the countryside and our gardens, and everything will start to feel a little more hopeful. This is a good time to immerse yourself in a book about the natural world, to remind yourself that no matter what else is going on, spring will spring.As hedgerows come into leaf and blossom, pick up a copy of A Natural History of the Hedgerow by John Wright. The book is a dive into the natural and human history of this almost entirely British phenomenon; as Wright says in his introduction, aliens visiting Britain would quickly notice our coast to coast network of hedges and fields and perhaps presume that the whole population must be involved in tending them - and that, not that long ago, they would have been right. Continue reading...