Once Upon a Raven's Nest is an account of an epoch of change; of the earth and of a human life. It is the story of a working class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor, and of the planet during the period of its great acceleration towards the current climate emergency.

Born in 1955 to a rural working-class family in Somerset Thomas refused to conform. His fierce independence, recklessness and contrariness led not only to scrapes and self-inflicted dangers but to a life enriched by the love of women. Catrina Davies came to know him in his last years and has given his life and times in his own words, creating a rich, pungent language in a knowing, poetic and poignant voice.
 
'This has the unmistakable smell of a classic. Davies has restored my flagging faith in the ability of language to tell the unvarnished truth. Here's a book worthy of Exmoor ravens and rivers and of the big, bold, dignified story it tells. I have no higher praise.' Charles Foster
 
Published April 2023
Nature/Memoir
Hardback 400 pages | 222 x 138 mm
Quercus Publishing