Book of the Month: October

Caught by the River · Oct 19, 2026

Without a culture of reverence for our land, is it any wonder that it is ailing? ponders Nick Hayes, in an extract from ‘The Medicine Tree’, our October Book of the Month.

I had spent most of my summer in the river. I swam for exercise, but also for sheer bodily delight, sliding beside the red veins of the willow roots, writhing around submerged tree trunks like a snake in the mangroves, exploring the secret arbours and coves concealed by the falling cascades of leaves. These little ignored places, where the crayfish dig their nests in the clay, had become my favourite haunts and…