Lost in the Forest: Notes on Not Belonging from the English Countryside

From the Indie Bookshop bestseller, Tales from a Country Parish (2022), Colin Heber-Percy’s new book is a gentle, funny, and life-affirming exploration into belonging.

＂Colin Heber-Percy is a reliable guide＂ - THE REVEREND RICHARD COLES

Where am I? Who am I? And why didn’t I bring a sandwich...?

This book is a hymn to getting lost. Drawing on his experience as a troubled schoolboy, a burnt-out screenwriter at the BBC, an ’awkward’ priest in the Church of England, Colin Heber-Percy reflects on the value of not belonging...

We all share a desire to belong. There’s reassurance and safety in knowing who we are and where we fit in. But at significant moments in our lives - a new job, new school or an unexpected change of circumstances - or just in the ruts and routines of everyday life, we can experience a sense of not belonging, of dislocation, of being lost in a forest. But, there is another way to approach these uneasy moments. Rather than fearing the forest, Colin discovers great value and creativity there.

Join parish priest Colin Heber-Percy in an invitation to get lost - to lose the labels society and institutions use to box us in - and to relish the liberation of losing our way in the world. Blending anecdotes from parish life, with philosophy, literature and tales from his local Savernake Forest, Colin argues that there is an overlooked richness, a spirituality and a freedom to be found outside the boundary lines our culture sets for us.

Lost in the Forest is a gentle, funny, and life-affirming trail of crumbs through the woods...

PRAISE FOR COLIN HEBER-PERCY:

＂Colin Heber-Percy’s prose is flowing and he writes amusingly, perceptively and beautifully＂ ― KATE GREEN, Country Life

＂A gentle, generous spirit.＂ ― SIMON RUSSELL BEALE

＂A Wordsworthian appreciation of nature and is full of humanity and wisdom.＂ ― SARAH SANDS, journalist and author of ’The Interior Silence’

Rev Dr Colin Heber Percy is the parish priest for Pewsey, Wiltshire, as well as a screenwriter and author. His screenwriting work has won many awards and been shown all over the world. He has a PhD in medieval metaphysics and has lectured on spirituality, faith, film, and fiction. He lives in Wiltshire with his wife and three children.