Thanks very much to Chris Loynes for his review in the Autumn edition of the John Muir Trust (JMT) Journal. He clearly understood what the book was trying to do. He did make some criticisms which are valid. He did suggest that I dealt more extensively with the landowning issue in terms of “current land owning systems plus the impact of national and internaitonal policies”. One of the reasons I didn’t dwell on that issue directly is that it did not feature predominantly in my conversations with people at the time and my concern was to raise issues that they felt were important. People focused more directly on who has power and who gets to make decisions about how land is used, with land ownership in the background. However, it certainly could have featured more in my general discussions of the political and economic context.
Since the time of my research the question of landownership has become much more in the public eye. I discussed the issue of whether who owns the land matters in my article on the Green Landowners http://(https://landforwhatlandforwhom.org/2022/06/04/green-landowners-the-answer-to-the-ecological-crisis/).
I spent quite a lot of time with people from the JMT during my research. My research found that they had a good reputation at engaging the community and even some of the sporting estate workers spoke favourably about them. Others may have a different view but my view has only been reinforced in recent years since I have been a member and kept abreast of thier activities. I would be interested, though, to hear other views.
The full review can be seen here.
Land for What? Land for Whom? 
