My neighbour tore down the hedge outside our window – and I learned what ‘solastalgia’ feels like

My neighbour tore down the hedge outside our window – and I learned what ‘solastalgia’ feels like

It’s part of the language of environmental activism in the global south. But living in a UK city, I’d never connected with itThere stood, outside my front room window, until about a month ago, a proud little elder tree. A bough grew entwined with a towering hedge, separating our front garden from next door’s.Mostly, to be fair, it was an ugly tangle of vegetation, out of place in our posh south London neighbourhood. But it was the perfect hiding…