The lost history of wolves in Britain, and the myths and stories that surround them
Derek Gow
Chelsea Green, 2024, 245 pages
Hardback £20| ISBN 978-1-645020-42-4
Review by Peter Taylor
I like this book. It is different. Querky. The author pens his own illustrations. He invents some novel grammatical constructions. Waxes poetical. Yet always, loads of relevant detail of wolf habits and of course, the sad history.
Somehow, Gow’s approach lightens the sadness. It is horrific, of course, the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish histories and unfathomable in this age – just as is the historic burning of women at the stake, which the persecution of the wolf parallels. The two histories share the grossly unjust demonising of a threat.
In the case of the wolf, the death knell was sounded by the Norman church acquiring a taste for sheep ranching. Bounties saw the hunting down. The Welsh paid annual tribute to the Normans in wolf pelts. Within a few generations of religious conversion and suppression of the indigenous culture, especially the Gaelic and Welsh language and its rich shamanic relationship to nature, the wolf lost its iconic animal powers and became the ogre of Little Red Riding Hood. There are many stories here of the last wolf, including encounters where it gets beaten over the head by an old woman with a griddle.
It’s a book rich in myth and story, characters old and modern – the latter dealing with the return of the wolf to much of Europe (including Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium!). The return has brought problems, particular for sheep farmers, but the progressive recolonization, even of land a long way from wilderness, offers evidence of a changing consciousness.
Derek Gow is a modern-day rewilding legend – a sober and practical activist, with a career of zoo-keeping now replaced by his rewilded farm in Devon with its annual ‘wilderfest’ camps that are booked out well in advance. He keeps a stock of bison, Heck cattle (Aurochs substitutes), beaver and water voles, with which to seed any rewilding initiatives bold enough.
This little book might just tip the balance toward a future re-introduction. Unlike any other, it speaks the language of the expected opposition – the farmer and the gamekeeper, and with understanding and added humour. Sooner, or later, a pregnant penned female will escape over a snow-covered fence, den and raise kits. Then the dividing line will manifest and returning wolves will need all the help they can get!