If you believe England’s land is ‘green and pleasant’, think again. According to activist and author Guy Shrubsole it’s been plundered and ravaged for the benefit of the few for centuries. In his latest book out this week (‘The Lie of the Land’), Mr Shrubsole targets the aristocracy and commercial farmers, arguing that they should not be considered the rightful stewards of the land.

It was at the age of about 10 years that Guy Shrubsole experienced first hand what happens when the unspoilt countryside and the developed world collide.

“The Newbury bypass was built through nine miles of countryside just outside where I lived, on places where I'd gone on walks with my parents, and that experience really stayed with me,” he says. “Thousands of trees were felled. Lots of people came and protested, and although they didn't win that battle, ultimately they did win the war against the roads program and it got canceled.”

His takeaway from that particular experience was that actual change could only be brought about by acting with others and becoming an activist. It is a recurring theme that has come to define much of his career.

A Devon resident since about 2020, he has a life-long connection to the land. His grandparents are still farmers and his knowledge of Dartmoor goes back to his student days.

Slight of frame, quietly spoken and polite to a fault, Mr Shrubsole may be an ardent activist, but he also exudes bonhomie - he even took the time out to do this interview during a nail-biting wait to change trains.

Aside from landownership rights, he also has much to say about Britain’s rainforests. Yes, you read right – they do exist in this country, albeit at a much reduced level. In Dartmoor, for instance, you can discover Black-A-Tor copse, comprising about 14 acres of Atlantic temperate rain forest, as well as Wistman’s Wood, a tiny but enchanting area, some eight acres wide.

In a previous book, ‘Who Owns England? How We Lost Our Green and Pleasant Land’, he tackled the secrecy surrounding land ownership in England, while his forthcoming work, ‘The Lie of the Land’ (out September 12), can be viewed as a logical next step.

“With this book I wanted to bust the myth that the small number of people who own land are the self-appointed custodians of the countryside. We are no longer in a situation where we can simply trust a small number of landowners to look after the land - we have to hold owners accountable for what they've done to the landscape.”

In the preface, there is a quote from conservative journalist Matthew Parris, who says the land “needs to be owned if it's to be looked after”, an assertion used by Mr Shrubsole to illustrate his point.

“Some landowners and farmers do really great work. The problem is that we can only go so far by pointing to too few examples of green landowners and green farmers. The big picture is, sadly, one of enormous declines in our wildlife and in our habitats from everything that we've done to the land. We can't just simply rely on voluntary measures and the idea of goodwill from self selected elite of land owners anymore,” he argues.

He points to tenant farmers, wild swimmers and others who began to reconnect with nature post-lockdown as proof that you don't have to own the land to care for it. Evidence of this is the work currently being carried out by volunteers to rid Dartmoor of Himalayan Balsam, an invasive plant species that’s partly responsible for the degeneration of the area.

While researching ‘Who Owns England?’ he also worked out that less than one per cent of the population owns half the land, largely as a result of the Norman Conquest and evidenced in the mother-of-all land ownership surveys, the Domesday Book.

He estimated that over the centuries the elite took over millions of acres of land and then quietly went about covering up the operation, first by building walls and burying surveys and more recently by hiding behind offshore shell companies.

Due to the opaqueness surrounding this issue, he has called for the land registry to be opened up to all.

Another hot topic is what he calls the “right to responsible access”, which is sometimes misleadingly termed as “the right to roam”.

In England, the public has access to only eight per cent of the countryside, in stark contrast to Scandinavian countries and indeed, Scotland, where there is a full right of responsible access.

But campaigners such as Mr Shrubsole have their detractors. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) points out that with the 3.5 million acres of land and 1.3 million acres of woodland already accessible to the public in England and Wales, it’s not a cut and dried issue.

The CLA also objects to framing the fight as a class war, arguing that a large section of the country’s land has to be protected for a variety of reasons, “including food security for the nation and to preserve sensitive environmental sites”.

Mr Shrubsole’s response to the CLA’s stance is to highlight instances where landowners have caused irreparable damage to the countryside. In ‘The Lie of the Land’ he cites the case of John Price, a multimillionaire landowner and farmer who last year was jailed for destroying part of the River Lugg in Herefordshire.

But is he peddling the politics of envy?

“As tax payers the public in England alone pays landowners and farmers an enormous amount of money every year - about £2.5 billion. And it's right that we should expect to have a say over that,” he says.

How does he respond to the claim that right to roam disrupts nature? And who, after all, hasn’t been disgusted by the sight of litter blighting well-known beauty spots?

“I hate litter as much as the next person, and whenever I see it, if I've got a bag with me, I'll try and pick it up, take it away and bin it,” he says.

“Nobody should have to do that, but we have to take a look at the big picture. What's actually more damaging to nature is actually people's sense of disconnection from the natural world. The vast majority of the public have been cut off from it for too long, and that is as a result of things like urbanization.

“One of the ways back to creating a greater sense of connection with nature is simply to allow people more access to the countryside and for people to feel more welcome in the countryside.

“I don't think the way to get people to care for the countryside is to put up lots of aggressive signs everywhere going ‘keep out, private property - trespasses will be prosecuted’. If you actually encourage people to feel a sense of belonging and care, like with the River Guardian groups that we see blowing the whistle on river pollution, you will begin to see a far more profound sense of urban care for the countryside as people access it.”

He is convinced that the tide is turning, albeit at a slower pace than he might like. Perhaps it’s all part of the call for greater accountability, a clamour that often sounds loudest when a country undergoes economic turmoil and the social contract appears to have broken.

But if there is a call to arms, you can bet Mr Shrubsole will join the metaphorical battle lines with an engaging smile and a revealingly poignant anecdote.

‘The Lie of the Land - Who Really Cares For The Countryside?’ published by William Collins.

And an evening of conversation with Guy Shrubsole at Dartington Hall, Wednesday, September 18.