We've probably all done it, whether our transgression has been inadvertent or deliberate but we've all been somewhere we shouldn't have actually been I'd wager.

In the Book of Trespass, Nick Hayes sets out to document some of his adventures trespassing and the laws that surround this "crime", whether it be from The Vagrancy Act, The Enclosures Act or the building of Walls such as the Great Wall of China, The Mexico Border Wall or even the non-existent wall between North & South Korea, the author covers this in detail. This is however taken at a level that everyone can understand. The law is ultimately complex but this book doesn't descend into too much legalise or become a textbook on the act of trespassing, although it does way heavy on the page count at times.

Each chapter takes on the name of an animal (fox, dog, cockroach, hare - to name a few) and each chapter tackles a different aspect of trespass, linked to that animal. Beit from the Great Trespass on Kinder Scout, through to protest camps such as the Greenham Common and Heathrow Airport camps or "The Jungle" refugee camp in Calais, all are covered alongside the direct experiences of the author.

The book covers the heroes - such as Roger Deakin and the villains - such as Nicholas Van Hogstraten, when it comes to trespass or preventing legitimate access and many of these I was already familiar with.

It is however the authors own personal experiences that stood out for me in this book. It would have been easy to write a summary of trespass across the ages, but he has actually been out an experienced it first hand, and it is these first hand experiences that bring the book together and make it work so well. These tales settle amongst those tales of history and the relevant laws and rules and pull the book together to make it a fascinating read.

Does the author fall foul of those laws he sets out to break? Well I'm not telling, you'll have to read the book yourself to find out, but the adventure and history are worth the read alone.

This land is their land.....for now.

Nick Hayes provides a timely overview of how we have all been robbed of that which once belonged to nobody, and therefore belonged to everybody. Detailing all the areas in which, since the Norman Conquest, a gang of thieves, once titled, then monied, have transformed the public into the private, the common into the exclusive, the diverse into the homogeneous. Using specious theology, selective philosophy, the tangled semantic fictions of law, money, influence, and brute force, they have made their theft an illusory copy of the natural order of things. A collective consensual fiction which has sunk deep roots into the national psyche.
However, the author details the various ways in which this malignant magic is being challenged. From grassroots community activism, through alternative ways of living and organizing space, to simply treating these boundaries as the illusions that they really are, for 'All that is solid melts into air'. This land is their land, but perhaps not for much longer.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Circus and Netgalley for this ARC.

This is a very intelligent book and I learned a lot. It explores the question of property, land, land access and trespassing from multiple angles - from the exclusion of the working-class, privatisation of the commons, exclusion of Black people and women from property... It is very thorough and very detailed. I found the chapters where he explores different areas long at times, sometimes a bit repetitive, but the historical research itself was wonderful and incredibly engaging.

The Book of Trespass is a compelling work of non-fiction, showing how the citizens of England have been robbed of our common land with the wealth moving inexorably from public good to private purse. I found the history so interesting, with walls changing from structures to keep livestock in, to barriers to keep people out. The country used to belong to the many, now it belongs to the few.

I enjoyed the narrator’s trespasses in each chapter and his small rebellions against the orthodoxy of “private land”. He has some ideas about how we can change the narrative and return rights back to the people, looking at historical acts like the Kinder Scout Trespass and at countries like Scotland, Sweden and Norway who do things differently and have public rights to roam.

A recommended read that gave me a lot to think about.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.