Sasha Swire’s debut, Diary of an MP’s Wife (2020), gave us an insight into the kind of cliquey people who run Britain, not least one Alexandra Patrusha Mina Swire and her husband, Hugo, since elevated to the Lords. Set in the world of the rich and powerful during the reign of David Cameron, it was gossipy, cruel and score-settling.

What was most memorable about the book was Swire’s hilarious confidence. Call it brave or call it reckless, it allowed her to opine on anything and anyone without regard for the consequences. In Edgeland, her second work, she seeks to harness that same confidence, and do for England’s natural world what she previously did for its politics.…