Roaming Wild: The Founding of Compassion in World Farming

Roaming Wild details the unconventional and pioneering lives of Anna and Peter Roberts, a British couple who were instrumental in making the animal welfare movement a respectable, highly-impactful and worldwide organisation. This book explores the paths that led Anna and Peter to found and steward what is now the world's largest and most successful animal welfare charity from a backroom of their own home, with few funds, and at a time when caring for animals and our planet was seen as ‘crankish' and ‘sentimental'.

This is the story of their family, their era, influence, their rebellion and prophetic ideas and the development of Compassion in World Farming. It spans the period from the early 1920s to their highly romantic meeting and marriage in the 1950s.This ‘ordinary' part of their story preceded their move to change everything by making the ‘extraordinary' decision during the tumultuous 1960s, of risking their livelihood, going vegetarian (as animal farmers), and losing the approval of their peers, to found their compassion-driven campaign. The Roberts were at first rejected by the popular animal charities of the day; believing that the public cared only about companion animals or those in circuses, rather than those animals who suffer the most – those in the food chain – and so the Roberts family went out alone in the face of much public derision. Then followed the highs and lows of campaign life including work alongside comedian Spike Milligan, model Celia Hammond and philosopher Peter Singer, and battles with agricultural and chemical giant Monsanto.

This is a tale of an ‘ordinary couple with an extraordinary vision'.

Emma Silverthorn has worked as a writer and educator for over 12 years and has written extensively for various online publications. She is the granddaughter of the founders of Compassion in World Farming. Author hometown: London