Cornerstones

Benedict Macdonald is a naturalist, conservationist, writer and producer.

Having studied wildlife since a very early age, Benedict attended Christ Church, Oxford, before pursuing a career in natural history film-making. He has worked on series including The One Show, Springwatch, and The Hunt and as a field director for Netflix's Emmy-award-winning series, Our Planet. Benedict also directed two BAFTA-nominated wildlife series for Apple TV+.

His first book, Rebirding, highlighted the need for mass-scale nature restoration across the UK. It was the winner of the Richard Jefferies Prize and inaugural winner of the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation. Ben's second book, Orchard: A Year in England's Eden, has also won critical acclaim, and his third book, Cornerstones, was a finalist in the 2022/2023 People's Book Prize.

As a conservationist, Ben has remained at the forefront of public discourse on rewilding, nature restoration, regenerative farming and reintroducing lost species to the UK. He previously worked as Head of Nature Restoration for Real Wild Estates, and is now the founder and director of rewilding business Restore, which lobbies for the economic and social imperatives of large-scale landscape restoration and species reintroduction in the UK.