‘Nationalism suits the landowning classes because it gives people a sense of ownership when they own nothing at all.' Photo: Book cover of The Book of Trespass: Crossing the lines that divide us, by Nick Hayes
The Book of Trespass: Crossing the lines that divide us, by Nick Hayes
Author: Nick Hayes. Review by Tony Tucker
Nick Hayes’ fascinating and provocative book is a tearing away of much of the pretence of British history. A nation’s view of itself is rarely realistic and in our case the fabrications are literally set in stone. The great houses and estates of the land are, if we care to look, testimony to our iniquities.
The author trespasses through some of those great estates. He steps through or over the walls, gates and fences that say ‘keep out’, transgressing the dividing lines between normative rules of private ownership. Landowners argue that, with footpaths now established, there is a healthy balance between property rights and the public rights of access. Hayes points out that only eight per cent of England is available to us.
Downton Abbey, it appears, was not only built of bricks and mortar but also the suffering of the enslaved people who built the fortunes. Ironically, when abolition came, Hayes argues it was the icing on the cake for the plantation owners since the ‘compensation’ granted to them – amounting in today’s terms to at least £87 billion – enabled them to purchase even more of these vast estates. They appropriated not only the lives of enslaved people in the Caribbean but the living and livelihoods of the people of this island, whose smallholdings, farms, rights to pasture and forage were swept away by the enclosures movement.
The Land of Hope and Glory it seems, for much of its history, was a criminal enterprise run by the aristocracy – robed in entitlement but a Mafia nevertheless. Hayes makes a telling point when he states that ‘Nationalism suits the landowning classes because it gives people a sense of ownership when they own nothing at all’.
This book is a timely reminder of the entrenched and increasing inequality in our society, since half of the nation’s wealth is land-based. When the Jubilee Line was built at a cost to the taxpayer of £3.4 billion, land values within a thousand yards of the line rose by an estimated £13 billion. As a society we reaped none of the benefit.
The author covers not just slavery and land-grab but the rights of migrants, travellers (those inveterate ‘trespassers’), the despoiling of peat moors, even the efforts of groups attempting to save urban trees. It is a compendium of knowledge and insight as well as powerful testimony to the ills of our society.
It is also a book to enjoy. Hayes is articulate and passionate. We walk with him through beautiful countryside. He writes with a loving eye of the nature that surrounds him and the book is beautifully illustrated with his own wood engravings. I would put it into the hand of every young person, perhaps as a set text in their last year of schooling, and, who knows, the result may be that, perhaps within a decade or so, we might find ourselves living in a more just, equitable, honest and green and pleasant land.
