Award-winning wildlife cameraman James Aldred has witnessed some of nature's most breathtaking spectacles, from birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea to ten million fruit bats migrating in Zambia. Yet, the more he travels, the more he treasures a place closer to home.
A Childhood Dream
Aldred grew up on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire and has always loved the area. By his mid-teens, with his parents' approval, he was building forest shelters and sleeping in the woods. He believes the survival of this 71,000-acre wilderness in overcrowded southern England is 'nothing short of a miracle'.
Longing for a Slice of the Forest
Even while filming condors in Patagonia or tracking elephants in the Congo, Aldred dreamed of owning a small piece of the New Forest. Land rarely comes up for sale, and building a house was never an option due to strict planning laws. What he wanted was a sliver of land where his three sons could climb trees and camp outdoors, just as he did.
His search became urgent when a family friend gave him a Romany wagon. Built around 1910, the horse-drawn wagon was once beautiful with wooden shutters, an elegantly curved porch, and a gleaming chassis. By the time Aldred acquired it, it was rotting away.
Rebuilding the Wagon
His charming book, A Wagon in the Woods, reads like an Enid Blyton adventure for adults, chronicling over a decade of rebuilding the wagon. Aldred realized he didn't need to copy traditional Romany designs: 'The important thing is to keep the spirit of tradition alive. Reinvent it, make it up, put your own stamp on the wagon and enjoy it.'
When the task seemed endless, he motivated himself by imagining the wagon in the New Forest. Miraculously, a pristine field came up for sale, complete with a stream where Aldred later captured images of visiting otters.
Full Circle
In the summer of 2025, his boys finally slept in the wagon (Aldred, his wife, and the dog made do with a tent). The green and yellow paintwork blends with the bracken, making the wagon look at home. Watching his sons run, climb, and explore the forest, as he did at their age, he feels life has come full circle.
This delightful book evokes the New Forest's special atmosphere. Who needs jungles, rainforests, or deserts when 'life and history lie thick here... entwined just below the surface, like ancient roots'?
