Wildest Dream: An imagined history of the Green Man

“I look up into the falling rain, letting it splash in my face, and hope against hope that the inspiriting green can yet disturb the civilised order before it consumes everything. This is, I suppose, an activist’s prayer. May the green spill into our lives and burst out again in a hundred thousand practices of vitality, attention, and care.”

What happens when we embrace wildness, as individuals and as a society? Wildest Dream poses this question, tracing the figure of the Green Man as he has passed through the ages, amongst our May festivals, church walls and peasant protest, and into emerging movements of resistance and change. Along the way we meet characters old and new, and find communities striving for a better world. 

While the Green Man’s story asks that we confront the violence faced by people and planet, David Gee’s enduring message is above all one of hope – a beautiful challenge to live in deeper communion with each other and the earth.  

Endorsements:

“Eloquent and insightful… captivating” Amy Jane Beer

“Profoundly moving – perhaps even life-changing.” Clare Shaw

“Gee leads us on a merry dance through the shadows and the light, peeling back the undergrowth to reveal the Green Man's face: so familiar, so unknown, and ultimately so full of hope. A wild, joyful tangle of a book and an ecological quest.” Nick Hunt

“A breath of wild truth runs through this book, carrying the rumour of a world worth living for, a hope born on the far side of despair and an invitation to lean towards life. Would that each of us might find a way to make a gift out of our lives, as David Gee has done. Listen carefully to the stories he left us in these pages and you will find clues for how it can be done." Dougald Hine