THE WILD FOOD UK Foraging pocket guide

by Marlow Renton & Eric Biggane

Wild Food UK has been running foraging courses throughout Britain since 2012. In early 2018 the company’s founders, Marlow Renton and Eric Biggane, met with us to discuss creating a book for them. The result was this 352-page handbook, packed with information covering 120 species of the UK’s plants, trees and mushrooms, and illustrated with more than 500 colour photos.

Early in the process, the decision was made to make use of Wild Food UK’s extensive archive of photographs, rather than to take the typical approach of using botanical watercolours. This formed the foundation of the book’s clear, user-friendly style. With a sturdy pocket-sized paperback selected as the chosen format, work began to turn Marlow and Eric’s knowledge and experience into a practical, usable handbook.

The Foraging Pocket Guide has been an instant success on Wild Food UK’s foraging courses. While independent bookshops have reported excellent sales the book has become a category bestseller on Amazon. The paperback is now in its second printing, and has been joined by a special hardback edition.

“Making a book was a dream we’d had for many years. Collaborating with Otherwise made it a stress-free success – working with them was a pleasure from start to finish. Producing our book required Otherwise to gain a deep understanding of what we do, and they took the time to do this. As we had no prior experience of publishing, we needed help with every phase. We wanted a clear, practical layout and concise, informative text, and Simon’s editing and design work was invaluable in realising this. The finished product has earned much praise and won an Amazon Best Seller Award. We would not have been able to achieve such a high standard without their help and advice. We’d heartily recommend Otherwise to anyone looking to self-publish. We already have several new projects under way with them.”

MARLOW RENTON AND ERIC BIGGANE