WRITER Philip Parker has composed a poem in celebration of the heathland remaining at Crooksbury Hill and Common, near Farnham.

He is one of 26 writers who have explored some of the UK’s most distinctive and important habitats and wild places. Each writer has composed a poem of exactly 100 words (called a centena) which will be released daily throughout September.

The 26Habitats project, a collaboration between writers’ organisation 26 and The Wildlife Trusts, shines a light on the threats facing our diverse habitats, as well as the role of their restoration in helping to combat climate change and the decline of wildlife.

As the UK gears up to host the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow this November 26Habitats is a timely creative response to an unfolding crisis.

Mr Parker said: "Heathland is a very distinctive Surrey landscape, home to rare reptiles and dozens of species of birds and hundreds of kinds of insects.

"But the UK has lost 85 per cent of its heathland. I wanted to explore how we came to lose so much of this vital habitat. I didn’t realise that the UK has 20 per cent of all the remaining such heathland in the world - so it really is rarer than rainforest."

The poems (each with an accompanying essay on the background to the writing) are published online at www.26project.org.uk/26habitat daily during September, and shared on social media. Philip’s poem is published below.

This will build up into a unique anthology which responds to the habitat and climate crises - and reflects how central nature is to climate recovery.

Each of the new poems will be accompanied by a specially commissioned illustration by graphic designer Lydia Thornley, who visited many of the habitats explored by the 26 writers and sketched her distinctive response.