" The world needs this book" Ruth Padel
The Wildness
Anne Keer
An eco-historical novel of love, land and resistance
‘Without a doubt there had been
wildness in me then.’
As the Enlightenment dawns, Hannah Sentance finds herself increasingly disturbed by her husband Walter’s unyielding desire to transform the land around their estate into an elite Gentleman’s Park. At the heart of the conflict stands an ancient oak tree – a lightning rod for opposing forces: modern ‘progress’ and reverence for the natural world. As competing ideas on nature collide, reshaping land and lives, Hannah probes both, and Walter’s quest for dominion over land and status leaves her questioning how far she will go to protect the living world she loves. A symbol of resistance, wildness and a young woman’s love affair with nature, the tree embodies Hannah’s struggle for a way of being, of belonging and of recognising that nature is not something to be conquered.
Set in 18th-century pre-industrial England, at a time when people lived alongside nature, when land enclosures uprooted rural communities and the seeds of today’s ecological crises were just being sown, The Wildness blends historical fiction with urgent contemporary themes; drawing striking parallels between the control of women and the exploitation of nature, asking what it takes to resist – and to rewild – in a world built on control.
in May 2026 as a paperback and ebook
ISBN: 978-1-916821-43-9 and eISBN: 978‑1‑916821‑44‑6
Advance praise for Anne Keer’s The Wildness
‘‘A fascinating, beautifully written novel. Her pitch-perfect historical voice, and skilful handling of gendered perceptions, interact with the fresh-felt reality of nature, branch and whisker, moss and root, revealing something we all need to understand today: how the fashionably entitled of the day ruthlessly, and artificially, remoulded the English landscape. Brilliant.’
– Ruth Padel, author of Girl, Tigers in Red Weather, Daughters of the Labyrinth, Darwin. Chair of Judges for the T. S. Eliot and Forward Poetry Prizes; Judge for the International Man Booker Prize and Wellcome Trust Science Book Prize.
‘The Wildness renders a pivotal time in history when two world views are on a collision course, in psychological depth it is as pitch-perfect as if she were hearing the characters speak, and she brings the living world alive on the page, profound and ensouled. Written with catnip and the roots of oak, this is a spellbinding read.’
– Jay Griffiths, author of How Animals Heal Us, Wild and Why Rebel. Winner of the Discover award in the USA, and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.
‘The Wildness brings history to life in such a way that you can identify with characters, feel them and their thoughts. I fell in love with them! Here you can find the roots and relevance to the multi crises of today, but also, a path out. It illustrates beautifully how outliers can challenge and forge a new (old) relationship with nature, as well as one another across social boundaries, to form a new age of enlightenment. A rural historical novel for our times, like the sun on your face through the shade of an ancient tree.’
– Nicola Chester, author of On Gallows Down, winner of the Richard Jefferies Prize for Nature Writing. Judge for the 2024/5 Climate Fiction Prize.
‘The Wildness is a beautiful and beguiling story with the natural world at its heart. Anne Keer has a gift for exquisite description and quiet passion emanates from her words. I was fascinated by the attitudes of the society she conjures so well, along with the conflicting artifice and honesty that play out in the book. An authentic, emotive and utterly enchanting read.’
– Hazel Prior, author of Away With the Penguins (#1 bestseller on Kindle, and audiobooks, Richard and Judy Book Club), Ellie and the Harp Maker and Life and Otter Miracles.
‘‘The Wildness is wonderful. A slow-burn revelation. Let it wrap its tendrils around you, with Nature as our primary teacher – and womanhood the means by which we learn to cast aside the chains of subjugation that keep us enslaved.’
– Sir Jonathon Porritt, environmental campaigner, former Director of Friends of the Earth UK.
‘A thoughtful and literate historical novel whose finely realised period setting allows an exploration of environmental issues even more pressing now than they were then. The author works with subtlety and lyrical grace to suggest that humankind’s relationship with the natural world is in need of radical reappraisal and rebalancing.’
– Jem Poster, poet, novelist and co-author of The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write: A Handbook for Fiction Writers; Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University.
‘A pleasure to read – terrifically realised, richly visual, and with a very exciting overlay of past and present.’
– Kirsty Gunn, author of Caroline’s Bikini and The Big Music.
‘The Wildness is a beautifully written nature fable for our time. Haunting, and relevant.’
– Hannah Bourne-Taylor, environmentalist and author of Fledgling.
Photo: © Mairi Eyres
About Anne Keer
Anne lives on a hill in rural Mid Wales where nature and the land have given shape to her ideas about the natural world. Previously she worked as a journalist in the Middle East, then in television documentary and drama for the BBC and Channel Four. Anne read History at Oxford and has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing from Aberystwyth University. She runs a small creative writing class and tries to give nature a bit of space on the land she and her partner look after. The Wildness is her first novel.