Our origin myths and narratives of the founding of human civilisations are dominated by the idea of separation from forests and nature. We now look upon forests, and wider rural landscapes, as simple places of escape and mental recuperation. Yet our relationship with what might go on under the trees is far more complex. Luke Turner asks if the western urban age, characterised by corporate homogeneity, might be resisted by a return to a more urgent philosophical engagement with our woodlands via gender, sexual and political identities.