Nine Miles, Two Winters of Anti-road Protest by Jim Hindl

Description

“This book is a beautifully written and wonderfully honest testimony to the anti-roads protests in which so many of us participated during the 1990’s. It took me back to those days, but also reminded me how much we carry forward now that climate change means that even the most industry-corrupted sceptics can no longer deny that our critique of ‘the great car culture’ was spot on. I remember a protest song that went. ‘What did you do in the eco-wars, Daddy?’ Read this book – it tells you.” –Professor Alastair McIntosh, author of ‘Soil and Soul’ and ‘Love and Revolution.’

“Extraordinary.” –John Vidal, The Guardian.

“Jim tells his story of the protest against the Newbury Bypass and other road schemes in a deeply moving way that perfectly captures the idealism and chaos of this time. The campaign against the infamous Newbury Bypass was enormous, spreading over the nine miles of the book’s title, 30+ protest camps, 1000+ arrests, and many thousands pf people’s involvement. None of us who were there will ever know the full extent of the heroic input of all those who participated, and I was enchanted to read Jim’s perspective from Middle Oak. He managed to catapault me straight back into the midst of the passion, chaos and turmoil. He is a very brave soul for entering back into that painful territory to chronicle what happened to him there.” –Rebecca Lush Blum, founder of Roadblock.

‘Nine Miles’ describes the fight against the Newbury bypass and other road protests of the British Isles in the mid nineteen nineties. It was a fight characterised by extreme cold, fire and community, cider, drugs and living simply in the woods. It was a fight to preserve our natural inheritance, to make the case for sustainable transport in the face of powerful vested interests and, in a wider sense, to stand up for the earth herself at a time when our lifestyles were often grossly out of balance with the natural order of things. Ten years on, that fight has lost none of its urgency.