Books by Ben Law

Ben Law's incredible sense of the land and his respect for age old traditions offers a wonderful insight into the life of Prickly Nut Wood.Having travelled to Papua New Guinea and the Amazon, observing age-old techniques for living in, working in and preserving forests and woodland, Ben Law felt compelled to return home and apply his learnings to a 400 year old plot of woodland near where he grew up - Prickly Nut Wood.This is the story of how he came live off the land, how he coppiced and hedged and created charcoal, how he puddled and built shelter and finally how he carved out his famous woodland home that Kevin McCloud has cited as his favourite ever Grand Design.And it's the story of the wood itself - how it lives and breathes and affects all those who encounter it, and how it's developed over the twenty years Ben has shared in its lifespan.This transporting tale that will make you long to hear the dawn chorus and wake up every day to the serene beauty of Britain's woodland.

In 2003 Ben Law captivated the nation by building his woodland house on Channel 4's Grand Designs programme - the home was later voted the most popular Grand Design ever by viewers. The presenter, Kevin McCloud, loved the project so much that he has written the foreword to this book! A Grand Designs Revisited programme was aired on British TV in October 2005. Full of stunning colour photographs, The Woodland House is a visual guide to how Ben built his outstandingly beautiful home in the woods. It is also a practical manual, and the story of a man realising a lifetime's dream to build one of the most sustainable and beautiful homes in Britain. The Woodland House gives details of the evolving design process, the identifying of materials, costings, project management and the actual building. It proves that low cost, low impact and high aesthetics can go hand in hand and that it is possible to build green and affordably. As the pre-eminent UK example of building with wood and renewable materials this will also appeal to the growing number of people with environmental and green interests, as well as to the building community.