'John Blay is a humble Australian bushman who is uncomfortable about comparisons with Henry Thoreau, but let me explore the parallel a little. Now in his seventies, Blay lives at Eden on the south coast of New South Wales with his beloved forests at his back. He has spent 40 years exploring them on foot and celebrating them in writing, most recently in his book Wild Nature: Walking Australia’s South East Forests (2020). The book completes a trilogy that began with Trek Through the Back Country (1987) and continued with On Track: Searching out the Bundian Way (2015). Most of his writing is inspired by close, sustained engagement on foot with rugged, wild, untracked bush.' (Introduction)