Isabella Tree | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1964 (age 61–62) |
| Education | University of London |
| Occupations | Conservationist, writer |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Edward Cavendish (grandfather) Mary Gascoyne-Cecil (grandmother) Ronald Tree (grandfather) Nancy Lancaster (grandmother) |
| Website | isabellatree |
Isabella Tree, Lady Burrell (born 1964)1 is a British author and conservationist. She is author of the book Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm that describes the creation of Knepp Wildland, the first large-scale rewilding project in lowland England. The 3,500-acre (1,400-hectare) wildland project was created in the grounds of Knepp Castle, the ancestral home of her husband, Sir Charles Burrell, a landowner and conservationist.
Biography
Tree attended Millfield School.2 She was adopted by an aristocratic British family as a baby. She read Classics, following the advice of author Iris Murdoch and went to the University of London.3
From 1993 to 1995, Tree was a travel correspondent at the Evening Standard.4 In 1999 she was Overall Winner of the Travelex Travel Writers' Awards for a feature on Nepal's Kumaris, or "Living Goddesses" – "High and Mighty" – for the Sunday Times.5 She has written articles for The Guardian6 and National Geographic Magazine.7
Tree is married to Sir Charles Burrell and lives at Knepp Castle in West Sussex.8
Books
- Tree, Isabella (1996). Islands in the Clouds: Travels in the Highlands of New Guinea. Lonely Planet Publications. ISBN 9780864423696.
- ––––– (2001). Sliced Iguana. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 1845114965.
- ––––– (2004). The Bird Man: The Extraordinary Story of John Gould. Barrie & Jenkins. ISBN 071262158X.
- ––––– (2014). The Living Goddess. Eland Publishing. ISBN 978-0143422549.
- ––––– (2018). Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9781509805105.
- ––––– (2020). Second Nature. Granta. ISBN 9781909889361.
- ––––– (2021). When We Went Wild. Ivy Kids. ISBN 9780711262850.
- ––––– (2022). When The Storks Came Home. Ivy Kids Eco. ISBN 9780711272798.
- ––––– (2023). The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding Big and Small. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781526659293.
- ––––– (2024). Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back, The Illustrated Guide for Children.
Awards
- 1996: Shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award (Islands in the Clouds)9
- 1999: Overall winner of the Travelex Travel Writer Awards910
- 2018: Richard Jefferies Society Literature Award (Wilding)11
- 2018: One of the top ten science books – Smithsonian Magazine (Wilding) 12
- 2019: Shortlisted for Wainwright Prize (Wilding)13
- 2020: Awarded the CIEEM (Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) Medal14
- 2021: Royal Geographical Society's Ness Award15
- 2023: Zoological Society of London Silver Medal (Wilding)16
- 2024: Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Sussex17
References
References
- "Isabella Tree". thegentlewoman.co.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- "Notable Alumni". Millfield School. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- Blanchard, Tamsin. "Isabella Tree". thegentlewoman.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- "Isabella Tree". rolfpotts.com. November 2003. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- "Biography". isabellatree.com. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
- "Isabella Tree". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
- "Isabella Tree". National Geographic Magazine. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
- "Isabella Tree". www.isabellatree.com/. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
- "Want to meet some wild, adventurous and inspiring women?". Chipping Norton Literature Festival. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020.
- Mayes, Frances; Jason Wilson (2002). The Best American Travel Writing 2002. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 347–. ISBN 0-618-11880-2.
- "Richard Jefferies Society & White Horse Bookshop Literature Prize 2018".
- "Ten Best Science Books 2018". Smithsonian Magazine.
- "Wilding". Wainwright Prize.
- "CIEEM Medal Winners 2020 – John Hopkins & Isabella Tree". September 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
- "Royal Geographical Society – 2021 Awards". www.rgs.org. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
- "Prestigious awards honour stars of conservation science | ZSL".
- Ellis, Lauren (24 July 2024). "Knepp Estate's founder Isabella Tree awarded Honorary Doctorate at University of Sussex summer graduation". University of Sussex.