Dukes, drug dealers, naturists and the truth about access to Britain's countryside, with Patrick Galbraith

It’s always nice when someone agrees to come back on the Country Life Podcast. It means that we were nice enough the first time to warrant a second visit. It’s flattering and it makes me happy.

This week’s guest was Patrick Galbraith, author, journalist, editor and game dealer. He came on one of the very first podcasts, where we didn’t really know what we were doing. We’ve come a long way since then — or, at least, he has.

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Patrick is an authority on the countryside and one of the few younger voices who really understands How Things Work Out There. His first book, In Search of One Last Song, was a hit. It was a subtle tale of conservation and class that eschewed the rather tedious tendency to put the self at the centre of contemporary nature writing. Instead, it focused on real stories from real people who had watched the natural world around them degrade.

He has a new book. It’s titled Uncommon Ground: Rethinking our Relationship with the Countryside. In it, he focuses on the issue of access and once again decides to ignore the loud voices on every side of this argument and drill down to a realistic understanding of the issue.

On this very website, we’ve heard from Alexander Darwall, we’ve heard from Lewis Winks, and now it’s time to hear from Patrick. We talk about the history of access in the countryside, what it really means, and what a modern solution might look like. He tells tales of naturists, poachers and county lines drug movers. He does the research.

We also talk about why he spends his free time putting venison on pizza. It’s a fantastic listen.