The Orchid Outlaw: On a Mission to Save Britain’s Rarest Flowers by Ben Jacob (hardback book)

Part nature writing, part adventure story, and entirely captivating, The Orchid Outlaw follows Ben Jacob — a passionate and brilliantly unconventional conservationist — on his extraordinary mission to rescue Britain’s rarest and most endangered wild orchids from the brink of extinction. Operating in the grey areas between obsession and illegality, Jacob secretly propagates protected species, returning them to landscapes from which they have all but vanished, driven by a love of Britain’s wild flora that borders on the heroic. Along the way he opens up a hidden world of botanical wonder — revealing just how astonishing, fragile, and fiercely contested Britain’s natural heritage truly is. Warm, witty, and genuinely thrilling in its own quietly subversive way, this is nature writing at its most alive and unexpected. Perfect for readers of Robert Macfarlane and Richard Mabey.