Why a Forest?

In stories, the forest is a place of transformation. It’s a place people venture into, away from the established order, to confront the problems that face them. Over the past year, we’ve been imagining Leeds as a forest – a complex, diverse place with no wide landscape, where roads thread between buildings, connecting people and communities. Using the image of a forest is a fun way to think about the challenges the city faces and how solutions to some of those challenges might arise.
The book was commissioned by Leeds Church Institute and is published in partnership with Leeds Big Bookend Festival.