The Waterlands: follow a raindrop from source to sea. Publishing 26/03/2026.
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‘A superb, fascinating and original book,’ James Macdonald Lockhart.
”A gripping observation of our most important element, at once informative, balanced, angry, hopeful and lyrical. The Waterlands is a wonderful piece of natural storytelling.’ Roger Morgan-Grenville.
‘Extraordinary! Rutt’s writing combines a naturalist’s knowledge and eye for detail with his deep and particular sensitivity to people and place. A lucid, passionate and moving book that made me see water, and raindrops, differently.’ Helen Jukes.
In his lyrical and insightful new book The Waterlands, the naturalist and award-winning writer Stephen Rutt takes the reader on a sparkling journey through some of Britain’s most beautiful wetlands. Rutt explores the many influences affecting how water shapes our landscape and wildlife, and how we shape it in return. It is a story that takes in the deep past of the dinosaurs and the near future of our water-stressed island. The narrative navigates our legacies of chemical pollution and sewage through to the rewetted, rewilded places that show an alternative way forward.
Delving into the natural rhythms and miraculous power of water, The Waterlands follows a raindrop as it falls to the ground in the Lowther Hills of Scotland and travels through the landscape to the Firth of Clyde. On its journey it flows through river sources in the upland moors, to river end in the saltmarsh-flanked firths and estuaries of Britain. However, the movement of water through a landscape is not a two-dimensional linear journey. Some will get diverted into other wetlands including lochs, bogs and marshes. Rutt follows these water diversions, investigating their underappreciated beauty, where unique ecosystems flourish – and where water is, of course, central to their existence. He looks at:
- Serene and spectacular lochs in Scotland that are suffering from acidification.
- Blanket bogs, including The Flow Country in the far north of Scotland, which are both land and water, a thin skin of peat over millennia-old water, locked and bulging below the surface.
- Chalk streams in Hertfordshire. Described as ‘Britain’s rainforest’ for their global rarity and unique wildlife, relying on historic rain locked in aquifers.
- The atmospheric reed and sedge filled marshes of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Water sustains these distinctive wetlands, but they are under threat. Wetlands are disappearing faster than forests – a third have gone since 1970, having been built on, reclaimed, polluted, diverted and dammed. We have affected water’s form, flow and health, to the extent that some might say all water on earth now bears our fingerprints. As scarcity and water conflicts loom, the deficit between England’s sustainable water supply and demand is forecast to be nearly 5 billion litres a day by 2050. It is more important now than ever that we protect this shared and essential resource.
Exploring geography, ecology, climate change, natural history and social history, The Waterlands is a captivating retelling of the water cycle. From its beginning to its end, water is the heartbeat of our planet. ‘And while we have neglected our wetlands, and taken water for granted’ says Rutt ‘ultimately the writing of this book left me hopeful for the future.‘
Stephen Rutt 