Wilding author Isabella Tree calls Baillie Gifford boycott a 'cheap jibe'

The book world is divided by the news that Baillie Gifford has withdrawn all of its sponsorship of literature festivals. It comes after a campaign led by Fossil Free Books, who called for the investment fund to divest from fossil fuel companies and the arms trade.

While Greta Thunberg dropped out of the Edinburgh book festival last summer over its sponsorship from Baillie Gifford, not all environmental campaigners are in agreement. Author and conservationist Isabella Tree thinks that the boycott was “a cheap jibe” which will do more harm than good.

“Many of Gifford’s investments are in incredible things, but they’re also investing in writers who are the critics and the free-thinkers,” she told us at a gala screening of Wilding, a new documentary based on her bestselling book. “To remove that huge funding, we might lose some of these prizes which will completely undermine writers across the board.”

Tree helped bring the rewilding movement into the public consciousness, but argues that “none of us are blameless” in the climate crisis. “Let’s just work with people to change their ways and their investments – and that is happening. But this isn’t the way to go about it, I think, alienating people like this,” she said.

Wilding follows Tree and her husband’s 25 year journey transforming the farmland on their Sussex estate into a rewilded habitat, teeming with natural life. The screening of the documentary, which will be released in cinemas on June 14th, was held at Curzon Mayfair, with a Q&A hosted by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

“I think we’ve got to learn how to live with wildlife again”, Tree said after the film. She has recently reintroduced beavers on her land, but has even loftier ambitions for the future of England’s wild animals. “Let’s keep wolves and bears on the agenda. I think lynx would be a wonderful thing to get back, too.”