It is a real honour to be a Patron of Felbeck Trust. The very best antidote to feelings of environmental despair and hopelessness is to join local community action to make our neighbourhoods better - for wildlife and for ourselves. 

​I grew up in Reepham, inheriting my parents’ interest in nature, but I was also influenced by our Norfolk landscape - often intensively farmed but still harbouring wildlife. 

After some years away from Norfolk, I decided I needed to reconnect with nature. In 2009 I set out to see all 59 species of British butterfly in one summer, resulting in my first book, The Butterfly Isles. Since then, I've written Badgerlands, Islander, and Wild Child, which I hope will inspire parents and grandparents to help their children spend more time in nature.

​Now living in Norfolk with my family, I continue to work for The Guardian, give talks about nature, write books and evangelise about Norfolk to anyone who will listen.

​Returning to the county after 15 years away, I have seen in many places how our countryside has been improved from the desolate days of the 1980s. Good agri-environment schemes have encouraged farmers to do what they want to do, and produce food without exterminating all wildlife. Species that were missing when I was a child have returned: Buzzards, Purple Emperor butterflies, Badgers, Red Kites, Otters.

​But of course Norfolk is a landscape under pressure and we have lost almost all our Turtle Doves and Nightingales, while development and pointless new roads threaten to further fragment our nature-depleted county.

Ultimately, it is down to us to fight for nature and create a richer world for everyone and everything in it. That's why I salute you all at Felbeck Trust who are working to restore and enhance our precious county.