Ben Short and his beautifully written memoir Burn: A Story Of Fire, Woods And Healing have featured in a Guardian article on nature writing and the runaway success of “a new genre of books about radical reinventions”.

In the article, which you can read in full here, Laura Barton discusses the increasing number of people leaving their jobs and turning their backs on a traditional career path, a phenomenon labelled “the Great Resignation”.

Barton writes: “It makes sense that these memoirs [such as Burn] should flourish in this context; those contemplating a radical life-change perhaps seeking inspiration – or the steadying hand of a cautionary tale.”

She writes of Ben Short’s Burn: “In one memorable scene, Short recalls the point where it became apparent that he must change his life. He is on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, pitching for a new advertising account, when he suffers an acute anxiety attack. “I felt like a boxer who had been knocked down a million times,” he writes, “yet staggered back to his feet and was floored again in a bout lasting years. Inside I was pulp.””

Exquisitely written and laced with folklore and the history of burning, the right way to lay a hedge and the age-old wisdom of the woods, Burn is a hopeful story of transformation, a celebration of manual work and craft, and a love letter to the English landscape.