Hunt for the Shadow Wolf: Derek Gow In Conversation with Mary Colwell

Britain’s favourite maverick rewilding expert, Derek Gow, is joined by producer and campaigner Mary Colwell as he uncovers the mythology, mystery, and history of wolves in Britain in this lively in-conversation event and the launch of his new book, ‘Hunt for the Shadow Wolf.‘ Having helped return the beaver and many other lost species to Britain’s shores, Derek Gow’s dream is that one day we will see the return of the wolf as well.

With wolf rewilding projects having been successfully implemented around the world – Derek asks what is holding us back?

The wolf used to walk proud through these lands, an integral party of Britain’s ecology, but its extir-pation was seen as a ‘civilizing mission’ and it was eventually hunted to extinction. Derek asks what the underlying motives were behind our hatred of this animal, and how its legacy has endured through folklore and mythology, the records of grand estates and parish churches as well as wolf heads, both real and recreated.

He believes we must reconcile our relationship with this majestic animal before we can begin to bring it back to these lands.

Derek Gow is a farmer, nature conservationist and the author of Bringing Back the Bea-ver and Birds, Beasts and Bedlam. Born in Dundee, he left school when he was 17 and worked in agriculture for five years. Inspired by the writing of Gerald Durrell, he jumped at the chance to manage a European wildlife park in central Scotland in the late 1990s before moving on to devel-op two nature centres in England. He now lives with his children on a 300-acre farm on the Devon/Cornwall border, which he is in the process of rewilding. Derek has played a significant role in the reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver, the water vole and the white stork in England. He is currently working on a reintroduction project for the wildcat.

Mary Colwell is a writer, producer and campaigner for nature. She is the author of 4 books, the most recent, ‘There  Gathering Place’ was published by Bloomsbury in April 2023 and shortlisted for the Stanford Award for best travel writing of 2024. In 2009 she won a Sony Radio Academy Gold Award and in October 2017 the BTO Dilys Breese Medal, in 2018, the David Bellamy Award from the Gamekeepers Association for conservation, and in 2019, the WWT Marsh Award. In 2022, she was awarded the RSPB Medal for her contribution to nature and conservation. She successfully spearheaded the new GCSE in Natural History. In March 2021, she was appointed Chair of the DEFRA supported Curlew Recovery Partnership England, a roundtable oforganisations charged with restoring Curlews, their habitats and associated wildlife across England. In 2020 she set up the charity, Curlew Action.

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