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Why Rebel

UK Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, Penguin

‘If bravery itself could write, it would write like she does’ John Berger

Why rebel?

Because our footprint on the Earth has never mattered more than now. How we treat it, in the spirit of gift or of theft, has never been more important.

Because we need a politics of kindness, but the very opposite is on the rise. Libertarian fascism, with its triumphal brutalism, its racism and misogyny – a politics that loathes the living world.

Because nature is not a hobby. It is the life on which we depend, as Indigenous societies have never forgotten.

Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars, and they are lining up now to write rebellion across the skies.

From the author of Wild, this passionate, poetic manifesto for urgent rebellion is also a paean to the deep and extraordinary beauty of the natural world.

REVIEWS

‘Jay Griffiths helped redefine activism for a generation, combining detailed research with a poet’s flair for language. Her works defy categorisation and fizz with original ideas and excitement’ Byline Times

‘Jay’s writing has reduced me to hot throbs of grief; through beauty and subtlety, to the depths of the hurt of these times . . . and what a liberation to express this, to free the space in my chest to feel the love that propels me forwards’ Gail Bradbrook

‘Chewy, erudite, filled with swing: this is a dazzling book, urgent without ever being worthy, a book that crackles. Why Rebel is a Tardis, to read it is to enter the massive, a deep interior that hydrates vocation in a time of trouble’ Martin Shaw

‘Take a human being. Lean it gently on the earth and let it listen awhile. Ask it then what are...