Wildlife: general interest Books

Book SynopsisWhat might we learn about our own human natures from the friskiness of a young goat, the focus of a hawk, the transformation of a butterfly, or the hibernation of a bear?How can animals—through their natural and cultural histories—offer us ideas that could help us better understand ourselves, navigate a relationship, or change an aspect of our lives? Do the animals that we admire or fear reveal something about us? What about the animals who appear in our dreams, visions, and creative inspirations? These are some of the questions addressed in Belinda Recio’s new book, Your Inner Zoo: A Guide to the Meaning of Animals and the Insights They Offer Us. Part animal symbolism dictionary, part field guide, and part meditation on how animals help us to understand ourselves and the world, Recio wrote Your Inner Zoo to help readers develop a “zoology of the self”—a sense of how animals live within us as ideas and insights, intuitions, and instincts. Interweaving natural history and with animal symbolism, metaphors, folktales, and traditions, Your Inner Zoo invites readers to approach animals as sources of wisdom, perspectives, and provocative ideas that can lead to self-discovery and a deeper connection with the more-than-human world. Illustrated throughout with original color artwork by the author and stunning photography, Your Inner Zoo helps readers to recognize how much animals have contributed to the way we see ourselves and the world.Trade Review“This is a wonderful book! It's full of delightful natural history nuggets combined with original insights. Your Inner Zoo helps us see that animal inspiration is all around us, showing us grace and beauty, compassion and wisdom, humor and courage. Everyone I know will love this.”—Sy Montgomery, author of the national bestselling How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals and The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness“In Your Inner Zoo, Belinda Recio has done it again: she has blended scholarship and artistry to elevate our understanding of and respect for the animals with whom we share this planet. In past books she has illuminated animal intelligence and emotion. In this book she shares the cultural, artistic, historical, mythological, and mystical aspects of animals. This is not just another dictionary of animal symbolism. It is a contemplation about the deep-down links between animals and humans, and provides practical yet insightful ways animals can reveal our own inner natures.”—Joan Parisi Wilcox, Masters of the Living Energy: The Mystical World of the Q’ero of Peru“Belinda Recio has once again written a comprehensive and enriching work that reminds us we are one with animals. This beautiful book reminds us that we share the planet with extraordinary beings who have their own innate wisdom and who contribute by their very existence to the continuation of life on earth.” —David Carson, author (with Jamie Sams) of the bestselling Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power through the Ways of Animals PRAISE FOR BELINDA RECIO’S WHEN ANIMALS RESCUE“Uplifting and life-affirming, When Animals Rescue will save your day! These true stories about animal heroes are a tonic for tough times. I loved it.”—Sy Montgomery, author of How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals and The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness “If you thought that only humans were capable of virtuous behavior, think again! When Animals Rescue will open your eyes to the breadth and depth of nonhuman kindness. Belinda Recio weaves in fascinating facts with astonishing stories about all kinds of animals—large and small, domesticated and wild—acting in compassionate ways. We need this book—not just to learn more about how other animals demonstrate kindness, but also to inspire more of this behavior in our own species! While books like this are timeless, its publication now is much-needed in a world in which far too much violence is directed toward far too many nonhumans in a wide variety of venues. My simple suggestion is to read this outstanding book, think about what you've learned, use this information to help other animals in an increasingly human-dominated world, and share it widely.”—Marc Bekoff, author of A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans and The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy―and Why They Matter“Social animals evolved to assist each other. This lovely book documents a great variety of rescues and helping, sometimes across species boundaries. There is really nothing to be ashamed of if someone calls you an animal!”—Frans de Waal, author of Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves PRAISE FOR BELINDA RECIO’S INSIDE ANIMAL HEARTS AND MINDS“Belinda Recio has written a fascinating account of animal emotions and animal intelligence. She makes the stories she tells available to a wide audience, and her examples are fair, friendly, and charming. I cannot imagine any animal lover not finding this a wonderful book!”—Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, bestselling author of nine books on the emotional life of animals, including Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil “Belinda Recio's Inside Animal Hearts and Minds will make it easier for people to rewild their hearts, and (re)connect with other animals. It's essential that as we learn about the inner lives of animals—their cognitive, emotional, and moral capacities—we take action on their behalf. Ms. Recio's book could be a game-changer.”—Marc Bekoff, author of A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans and The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy―and Why They Matter

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Book SynopsisIncluded are over 700 color photographs, depicting the different species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish, while offering over 600 range maps to show their territory, along with basic information for the biology of each animal, Indiana's wildlife has always played an important role in the history of human beings inhabiting the state. Although the state's wildlife is still an important resource for human consumption, wildlife is also increasingly important in today's culture for its intrinsic, aesthetic value. For many Hoosiers, the age-old traditions of hunting and fishing have been replaced by a desire to simply observe wildlife and experience nature. But most Indianans are largely unaware of the diversity of species inhabiting their state. This volume is intended to provide an introduction to the state's fresh water fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. In Indiana Wildlife Encyclopedia, nationally known natural

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Book SynopsisAn illustrated guide to the natural habitats and rich diversity of wildlife in the greater Minneapolis and St. Paul metro area Though the Twin Cities and environs have proven a fine habitat for one particular species, the three million humans who call the area home share these 3,000 square miles with myriad animals and plants, all in a mosaic of various ecosystems. While most of the region’s wildlife has lost its original habitat to agriculture and urban development, a significant patchwork of native and restored habitat remains—prairies, woods, and wetlands, along with pockets in the parks and open spaces throughout the cities and suburbs. This easy-to-use guide gives novice and long-time naturalists alike the tools to find and explore these natural places in the metropolitan Twin Cities, some within the city limits and all within an hour’s drive of downtown Minneapolis.John J. Moriarty is a congenial expert on the remarkable diversity of plants and animals in the region’s habitats, from prairies and savannas to woods and wetlands such as swamps and marshes, to fens and bogs, lakes and rivers, and urban and suburban spots. Featuring Siah L. St. Clair’s remarkable photographs, maps, and commentary on natural history, this field guide invites readers to investigate the Twin Cities’ wildlife—familiar and obscure, sun-loving or nocturnal, shy or easily observed. Here are snapping turtles, otters, and Cooper’s hawks, the wild lupines, white water lilies, and sprawling white oaks, among hundreds of species found in the wild, the park, or even the backyard. Including notes on invasive species and a list of references and organizations, this book is a perfect companion and an unparalleled resource for anyone interested in discovering the rich natural world of the Twin Cities. Trade Review"This easy-to-use guide includes pictures of plants and animals arranged by regional parks, from chipmunks to garter snakes, invasive buck thorn to oak trees. It will enrich your admiration for these creatures and plants that thrive alongside 3 million humans in a ‘mosaic of various ecosystems.’"—Pioneer Press"Here is proof that you need not go beyond the boundaries of the metro area to find new and exciting natural places to visit, and fascinating to see."—Star Tribune"This easy-to-use guide gives novice and long-time naturalists alike the tools to find and explore these natural places in the Twin Cities metro."—Minnesota Outdoor News"This book is a perfect companion and an unparalleled resource for anyone interested in discovering the rich natural world of the Twin Cities."—Community Reporter"This a high quality guide for amateur naturalists in the Twin Cities region."—CHOICETable of ContentsIntroductionPrairies SavannasBig WoodsOak WoodsWetlands: Marshes and SwampsFens and BogsLakesRiversUrban and SuburbanAppendix A. Natural Areas and Parks by HabitatAppendix B. Animals and Plants by HabitatChecklist of Vertebrates of the Twin CitiesResourcesIndex

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Book SynopsisA journey through unexplored spaces that foreground new ways of inhabiting the urban One of the fundamental dimensions of urbanization is its radical transformation of nature. Today domestic animals make up more than twice the biomass of people on the planet, and cities are replete with nonhuman life. Yet current accounts of the urban remain resolutely anthropocentric. Lively Cities departs from conventions of urban studies to argue that cities are lived achievements forged by a multitude of entities, drawing attention to a suite of beings—human and nonhuman—that make up the material politics of city making.From macaques and cattle in Delhi to the invasive parakeet colonies in London, Maan Barua examines the rhythms, paths, and agency of nonhumans across the city. He reconceptualizes several key themes in urban thought, including infrastructure, the built environment, design, habitation, and everyday practices of dwelling and provides a critical intervention in animal and urban studies. Generating fresh conversations between posthumanism, postcolonialism, and political economy, Barua reveals how human and nonhuman actors shape, integrate, subsume, and relate to urban space in fascinating ways.Through novel combinations of ethnography and ethology, and focusing on interlocutors that are not the usual suspects animating urban theory, Barua’s work considers nonhuman lifeworlds and the differences they make in understanding urbanicity. Lively Cities is an agenda-setting intervention, ultimately proposing a new grammar of urban life.Trade Review "Urbanities are the intersection and always provisional conjunctions of multiple inhabitations negotiated across a heterogeneity of agencies and forces—engendering dispositions always unsettled in their everyday encounters and unruly ecologies. This text is an unparalleled exploration of the liveliness that other-than-human beings infuse into a sociality extended beyond biopolitical conceptualization and control, underlining an urban economy more attuned to its natural surrounds. An essential excursion across the shifting landscapes of incipient sustenance."—AbdouMaliq Simone, author of The Surrounds: Urban Life within and beyond Capture

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Book SynopsisA journey through unexplored spaces that foreground new ways of inhabiting the urban One of the fundamental dimensions of urbanization is its radical transformation of nature. Today domestic animals make up more than twice the biomass of people on the planet, and cities are replete with nonhuman life. Yet current accounts of the urban remain resolutely anthropocentric. Lively Cities departs from conventions of urban studies to argue that cities are lived achievements forged by a multitude of entities, drawing attention to a suite of beings—human and nonhuman—that make up the material politics of city making.From macaques and cattle in Delhi to the invasive parakeet colonies in London, Maan Barua examines the rhythms, paths, and agency of nonhumans across the city. He reconceptualizes several key themes in urban thought, including infrastructure, the built environment, design, habitation, and everyday practices of dwelling and provides a critical intervention in animal and urban studies. Generating fresh conversations between posthumanism, postcolonialism, and political economy, Barua reveals how human and nonhuman actors shape, integrate, subsume, and relate to urban space in fascinating ways.Through novel combinations of ethnography and ethology, and focusing on interlocutors that are not the usual suspects animating urban theory, Barua’s work considers nonhuman lifeworlds and the differences they make in understanding urbanicity. Lively Cities is an agenda-setting intervention, ultimately proposing a new grammar of urban life.Trade Review "Urbanities are the intersection and always provisional conjunctions of multiple inhabitations negotiated across a heterogeneity of agencies and forces—engendering dispositions always unsettled in their everyday encounters and unruly ecologies. This text is an unparalleled exploration of the liveliness that other-than-human beings infuse into a sociality extended beyond biopolitical conceptualization and control, underlining an urban economy more attuned to its natural surrounds. An essential excursion across the shifting landscapes of incipient sustenance."—AbdouMaliq Simone, author of The Surrounds: Urban Life within and beyond Capture

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Book SynopsisToward a posthumanist art and ethologyThe Owls Are Not What They Seem is a selective history of modern and contemporary engagements with animals in the visual arts and how these explorations relate to the evolution of scientific knowledge regarding animals. Arnaud Gerspacher argues that artistic knowledge, with its experimental nature, ability to contain contradictions, and more capacious understanding of truth-claims, presents a valuable supplement to scientific knowledge when it comes to encountering and existing alongside nonhuman animals and life worlds. Though critical of art works involving animals that are unreflective and exploitative, Gerspacher’s exploration of aesthetic practices by Allora & Calzadilla, Pierre Huyghe, Agnieszka Kurant, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Martin Roth, David Weber-Krebs, and others suggests that, alongside scientific practices, art has much to offer in revealing the otherworldly qualities of animals and forging ecopolitical solidarities with fellow earthlings.

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Book SynopsisExamining the appearance of nonhuman animals laboring alongside humans in humanitarian operations Both critical and mainstream scholarly work on humanitarianism have largely been framed from anthropocentric perspectives highlighting humanity as the rationale for providing care to others. In Nonhuman Humanitarians, Benjamin Meiches explores the role of animals laboring alongside humans in humanitarian operations, generating new ethical possibilities of care in humanitarian practice.Nonhuman Humanitarians examines how these animals not only improve specific practices of humanitarian aid but have started to transform the basic tenets of humanitarianism. Analyzing case studies of mine-clearance dogs, milk-producing cows and goats, and disease-identifying rats, Nonhuman Humanitarians ultimately argues that nonhuman animal contributions problematize foundational assumptions about the emotional and rational capacities of humanitarian actors as well as the ethical focus on human suffering that defines humanitarianism.Meiches reveals that by integrating nonhuman animals into humanitarian practice, several humanitarian organizations have effectively demonstrated that care, compassion, and creativity are creaturely rather than human and that responses to suffering and injustice do not—and cannot—stop at the boundaries of the human.Trade Review "In this incisive exploration of the ethical and political implications of nonhuman labor in humanitarian work, Benjamin Meiches raises important questions about how humanitarian practices of care and generosity may be expanded beyond the constraints of anthropocentric reason to serve a global multispecies community facing the simultaneous and intensifying threats of climate change, ecological collapse, mass extinction, and violent conflict."—Elan Abrell, author of Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care "For those that would dispute the relevance of the more-than-human in the study of international relations, Nonhuman Humanitarians constitutes a significant rejoinder. Benjamin Meiches’s book examines the intersection between humanitarian practice and the small, though growing, literature on the role of our fellow species in conflict situations. It has much to teach about human–nonhuman relations, the practice of humanitarianism, and the ethics of both."—Stephen Hobden, coauthor of The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism

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Book SynopsisExamining the appearance of nonhuman animals laboring alongside humans in humanitarian operations Both critical and mainstream scholarly work on humanitarianism have largely been framed from anthropocentric perspectives highlighting humanity as the rationale for providing care to others. In Nonhuman Humanitarians, Benjamin Meiches explores the role of animals laboring alongside humans in humanitarian operations, generating new ethical possibilities of care in humanitarian practice.Nonhuman Humanitarians examines how these animals not only improve specific practices of humanitarian aid but have started to transform the basic tenets of humanitarianism. Analyzing case studies of mine-clearance dogs, milk-producing cows and goats, and disease-identifying rats, Nonhuman Humanitarians ultimately argues that nonhuman animal contributions problematize foundational assumptions about the emotional and rational capacities of humanitarian actors as well as the ethical focus on human suffering that defines humanitarianism.Meiches reveals that by integrating nonhuman animals into humanitarian practice, several humanitarian organizations have effectively demonstrated that care, compassion, and creativity are creaturely rather than human and that responses to suffering and injustice do not—and cannot—stop at the boundaries of the human.Trade Review "In this incisive exploration of the ethical and political implications of nonhuman labor in humanitarian work, Benjamin Meiches raises important questions about how humanitarian practices of care and generosity may be expanded beyond the constraints of anthropocentric reason to serve a global multispecies community facing the simultaneous and intensifying threats of climate change, ecological collapse, mass extinction, and violent conflict."—Elan Abrell, author of Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care "For those that would dispute the relevance of the more-than-human in the study of international relations, Nonhuman Humanitarians constitutes a significant rejoinder. Benjamin Meiches’s book examines the intersection between humanitarian practice and the small, though growing, literature on the role of our fellow species in conflict situations. It has much to teach about human–nonhuman relations, the practice of humanitarianism, and the ethics of both."—Stephen Hobden, coauthor of The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism

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Book SynopsisAmid the historical decimation of species around the globe, a new way into the language of loss An endling is the last known individual of a species; when that individual dies, the species becomes extinct. These “last individuals” are poignant characters in the stories that humans tell themselves about today’s Anthropocene. In this evocative work, Lydia Pyne explores how discussion about endlings—how we tell their histories—draws on deep traditions of storytelling across a variety of narrative types that go well beyond the science of these species’ biology or their evolutionary history.Endlings provides a useful and thoughtful discussion of species concepts: how species start and how (and why) they end, what it means to be a “charismatic” species, the effects of rewilding, and what makes species extinction different in this era. From Benjamin the thylacine to Celia the ibex to Lonesome George the Galápagos tortoise, endlings, Pyne shows, have the power to shape how we think about grief, mourning, and loss amid the world’s sixth mass extinction.

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Book Synopsis__________________ Our Earth is more beautiful and more diverse than we can possibly conceive of. The Book of Vanishing Species is a stunning homage to the planet’s most mysterious, bizarre and wondrous creatures and plants. Their stories are captivating, from the eyeless and tiny dragonlike olm to the hawksbill turtle, whose gender will be determined by the temperature of the sand it is born in. These species may have survived for hundreds of thousands of years by cleverly adapting to their environments, but their future remains far from certain. The book brings to life red cranes as they dance and bow for the sheer joy of movement, trees that breathe out a haze of misty atmosphere for insects that only feast on one kind of flower, a deep-ocean snail quietly building its shell from iron... and each one of them is illuminated with an exquisite illustration. As you turn the pages, there emerges a network of life that stretches across and around the planet in a dazzling web of existence. This is both a love letter to life on Earth, and an urgent summons to protect what is precious and lovely in this world. Trade Review‘Bea Forshall’s images make the heart sing, but her beautiful, revelatory text also makes one weep. From dung beetles to lemurs, we may lose these extraordinary creatures. Forshall makes us fall in love with them, all over again. Let’s hope, to stir us into action, so these wonders don’t join the ranks of dodos and Tasmanian tigers' * Isabella Tree *'This wonderful book, with Beatrice Forshall's superb engravings, serves to remind us of the wonder and beauty of some of the species that may disappear for ever unless we take action to save them - now and before it is too late' * Dr Jane Goodall *'Through her prose and illustrations, Forshall makes a passionate case for protecting each and every one of these species' * The Times *'Forshall might not have a scientific background, but her poetic, human perspective and unique artistry are incredibly moving... The Book of Vanishing Species is both a celebration of our world and an urgent call to action' * BBC Wildlife Magazine *'Forshall's synthesis of artisanal craft, the artist’s eye and the sensibilities of an idealistic yet clear eyed environmentalist…is thrilling' * Sir Tim Smit *'Beatrice draws you into the sublime wonder of the Brazil nut tree, snakes head fritillary or the albatross and then, with gentle frankness enlightens you on their plight. Somehow it left me feeling more motivated, not just devastated, which is a testament to the skill of the author' * Geetie Singh-Watson *'As well as a beautiful celebration, this book is a call to arms' * Chloë Ashby *'Our disappearing flora and fauna are lovingly described and wittily illustrated in Beatrice Forshall's homage to what we are about to lose' * Daunts Books *

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Book SynopsisA Field Guide to Larking is a practical, interactive and inspiring guide to 'larking' from the bestselling author of Mudlarking. LARK (verb): to get out and about, to explore the world around us and to discover the little treasures hiding in plain sight. We think, of course, of mudlarking but there is also beachlarking, fieldlarking or even simply exploring your own home with fresh eyes. In this beautiful field guide, Lara teaches us how to lark for ourselves. There are maps and charts, tips and lists, and colour illustrations throughout to help identify finds. From tide tables for mudlarkers to a flint guide for fieldlarkers, this book is richly informative and yet small enough to pop in a pocket. Like a journal it invites you to interact – to make notes and record finds along the way. If Lara Maiklem's first book was a glimpse into a hidden world, with this field guide she shows us how we can discover it for ourselves.Trade ReviewEnchanting ... In fact, I am quite tempted to join Maiklem on the riverbed looking for treasure * Sunday Times on Mudlarking *There is a great deal to learn from these pages, not least the insight that finding lost things is the best way of losing yourself * Guardian on Mudlarking *Brilliant. No one has looked at these odd corners since Sherlock Holmes * Sunday Telegraph on Mudlarking *A lovely, lyrical, gently meandering book, filled with fascinating diversions and detail * Literary Review on Mudlarking *

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Book SynopsisGarden Wildlife is a book that looks at the habitats in our gardens from the point of view of wild animal and plants. If we understand our gardens in this way, then we can appreciate that different parts of our gardens essentially mimic wild habitats in microcosm. This means that we can provide places for wild animals and plants to flourish in our gardens, whether they happen to be in rural, suburban or urban settings. Above all, we need to get away from the current obsession with tidiness and sterility in our gardens, and allow odd corners to go wild, so that our native species can live alongside us in the modern world. Without wildlife to discover and observe in our gardens, our lives are impoverished, so we have a duty to ourselves and our children to invite nature back into our outside spaces.

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Book SynopsisGarden Wildlife is a book that looks at the habitats in our gardens from the point of view of wild animal and plants. If we understand our gardens in this way, then we can appreciate that different parts of our gardens essentially mimic wild habitats in microcosm. This means that we can provide places for wild animals and plants to flourish in our gardens, whether they happen to be in rural, suburban or urban settings. Above all, we need to get away from the current obsession with tidiness and sterility in our gardens, and allow odd corners to go wild, so that our native species can live alongside us in the modern world. Without wildlife to discover and observe in our gardens, our lives are impoverished, so we have a duty to ourselves and our children to invite nature back into our outside spaces.

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Book SynopsisRare British Breeds is a book inspired by the Rare Breed Survival Trust Watchlist, which is published annually, listing the species of sheep, cattle, horses, pigs, goats and poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese) that are endangered in the United Kingdom. This information is gathered from breed societies and lists the number of breeding females alive, along with their conservation status. Each species, regardless of their origin, is unique to the UK, either through cross breeding or by evolution. There are good reasons for wanting to keep these breeds alive; not just the genetic makeup of these creatures which means many are able to survive and thrive in very formidable conditions - a prerequisite for enduring possible future environmental disasters. Once gone, these genes will never be able to be replaced. They have taken thousands of years to develop. The book looks at the history of every breed, with their evolutionary roots, development over time, exportation, cross breeding and changing relationship to mankind as farming techniques react to societal shifts. Their particular physical characteristics such as meat, wool, milk, eggs or ability to pull great weights are discussed as well as their conservation status and the national and international efforts being made to ensure their survival.

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Book SynopsisA friendly, accessible insight into the weird, but wonderful world of the bees you may find in your garden. From the common or garden bumblebees that nest in bird boxes, compost heaps and old mouse holes, making ‘Winnie the Pooh’ style honey pots to feed their babes, to the quirky wool carder bee; a solitary bee that combs the fluff from garden plants to line her brood cells and the amazing leaf-cutter bee that carves chunks out of plant foliage to seal its egg chambers. This book will reveal the secrets and fascinating lives of the bees that live and breed in your garden, from buzz pollination, to the bee robbers that cheat the plants and steal nectar by stealth. With a seasonal guide to explore what you are likely to see in your garden, great plants to grow to help them, plus other fascinating information on these secretive creatures, this book is designed to bring alive the world of garden bees before your very eyes.

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Book SynopsisWhether you live in a house or flat, in a rural or urban environment, this beautiful book shows how to harness the natural world around us and feel more grounded and rooted in our surroundings.'Inspirational' – Cara DelevingneThe Wild Journal is a beautifully illustrated guide from leading florist and nature writer Willow Crossley. Guiding you through creative practical projects and therapeutic seasonal reflections, The Wild Journal celebrates the potential of nature to mend, heal and transform our mood.The simple, back-to-basics habits and small seasonal changes in the book can help everyone to counteract the unpredictability and chaos of everyday life. Wherever you live, there are simple mindful actions – from listening to birdsong instead of rushing on your commute, to collecting natural treasures such as feathers, branches, pebbles or pine cones. Willow shares her creative techniques for bringing nature into your daily routine – whether it's planting and potting, identifying wild flowers, trying your hand at beautifully simple flower arrangements or making your own essential oils and candles. There is space to record reflections and your favourite seasonal activities, as well as ideas for star-gazing, bird-watching, and so much more.Willow Crossley's creative approach is informed by an artistic eye and a life spent immersed in nature. From growing up in Wales where days were spent exploring outdoors and flowers adorned every surface, to living in France surrounded by fields of sunflowers, iris and fragrant lavender, nature has always been an intrinsic part of her everyday life.Trade ReviewBeautifully illustrated...a pleasing entry into the transformative and healing power of the outdoors. -- Evening Standard Top Pick for books on mindfulness and meditationHaving moved to the countryside four years ago, this book is not only a wonderful guide, but also feels like it could be my own personal journal. In her passion-driven knowledge and playful storytelling, Willow talks and cares for her surroundings the way one would for a friend. It has reminded me how much love, loyalty and kindness are as important to nature, as they are to me. -- Jack SavorettiA must-have for anyone interested in the positive impact engaging with nature can have on your soul -- Chloe Delevingne

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Book Synopsis'A warm and inspiring invitation to put down our phones, pick up a pencil and start really looking at the beauty all around us.' - Kathy Clugston, presenter of Gardeners' Question TimeLearn to let go of your worries and lose yourself in nature with this practical guide to sketching for pleasure, not perfection. Most of us know that creativity and time outdoors are good for our wellbeing, yet so many of us struggle to find the time or motivation to step away from our screens. But there’s a solution! Combining quick and easy exercises with the latest research on nature connection, wellbeing and creativity, The Green Sketching Handbook will inspire you to pick up a pencil and get started.Inspired by her own journey from climate scientist who hadn't tried drawing since childhood to artist and nature lover, Dr Ali Foxon will show you how to embrace your wobbly lines, unhook from a fear of criticism and create a habit that makes you feel good, not inadequate. You will learn more about yourself and your unique relationship with nature, finding out what brings you comfort and joy. Best of all, you'll create vivid and evocative memories of all your outdoor adventures, big and small, even if you’re convinced you can’t draw.Trade ReviewThe health of our planet and the people that depend upon it are being run down because of our collective blindness toward nature. Re-engaging and connecting people with the natural world is a vital prerequisite for a secure future, and this lovely little book provides one wonderful gateway to that. -- Tony Juniper CBE, environmentalist and chair of Natural EnglandA warm and inspiring invitation to put down our phones, pick up a pencil and start really looking at the beauty all around us. -- Kathy Clugston, presenter of Gardeners' Question TimeA joyful, beautifully illustrated and thought-provoking book. Use it to sketch more, reconnect with nature and spread the word. -- Anne Swithinbank, expert horticulturalist and panelist for Gardeners' Question TimeAli Foxon’s The Green Sketching Handbook helps you make that great leap from the sofa and screen to the outdoors... benefiting your brain and your wellbeing. Powered completely by fresh air, pencils and paper, The Green Sketching Handbook bypasses your keyboard completely. No screens needed. -- Asher Minns, Tyndall Centre for Climate ChangeIn a time of uncertainty, fear and gloom this is a book that shines bright like a diamond. Everyone can benefit from reconnecting with nature and this is such an honest, engaging and accessible guide. I think it will change many people's lives for the better and bring pleasure, hope and mental peace. So bring on the green sketching revolution. -- Andy Brown, Head of Sustainability, Anglian Water Group

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Book Synopsis'Rousing, polemical and heartfelt' - Gardens Illustrated'An invitation to take action' - The ObserverOne thing has become clear this year - we need nature more than ever. And it needs us too.From our balconies and gardens to our woodlands, national parks and beyond, Back to Nature captures the essence of how we feel about the wildlife outside our windows. Through personal stories, conservation breakthroughs and scientific discoveries, it explores the wonder and the solace of nature, and the ways in which we can connect with it - and protect it.Trade ReviewWell-researched and more nuanced than you might expect... And so Back to Nature is also an invitation to take action, showing how ordinary people can become activists. * The Observer *The main text is scattered with sparkling jewels of fascinating science on everything from how trees communicate to what birds dream of when they sleep. There are some truly inspiring tales... Rousing, polemical and heartfelt, Back to Nature is not afraid to challenge the status quo and it will fill you with a determination to take action. * Gardens Illustrated *Engaged, resolute and convincing... this could also be the most important book you've read in a long time. * BBC Countryfile *

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Book Synopsis'Lyrical and beautiful and feels like a haven in a cynical world - exactly the book we all need to read right now' Catherine Simpson, author of One Body: A Retrospective, When I Had A Little Sister and Truestory'A book of passionate resistance to everything in modern life that wants us to stay neat and small and fearful' Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure For SleepAn intimate weaving of memoir and herbal folklore, All My Wild Mothers is a story of rewilding our wastelands and the transformation that can happen when we do.At seven months pregnant, Victoria Bennett was looking forward to new motherhood and all that was to come. But when the telephone rang, the news she received changed everything. Her eldest sister had died in a canoeing accident.Five years later, struggling with grief, the demands of being a parent-carer for her young son, and the impact of deeper austerity, life feels very different to the future she had imagined. A move to a new social housing estate in rural Cumbria offers Victoria and her family a chance to rebuild their lives. Constructed over an industrial site, at first the barren ground seems an unlikely place to sow the seeds of a new life.She and her son set about transforming the rubble around them into a wild apothecary garden. Daisy, for resilience. Dandelion, for strength against adversity. Red campion, to ward off loneliness. Sow thistle, to lift melancholy. Borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times.Stone by stone, seed by seed, All My Wild Mothers is the story of how sometimes life grows, not in spite of what is broken, but because of it.'An exciting new voice in nature writing' Cal Flyn, Sunday Times Writer of the Year, and author of Islands of Abandonment and Thicker Than WaterTrade ReviewAll My Wild Mothers is an impossibly moving memoir of gardens, herbalism, and the rigours and rewards of care. It asks what we might be willing to sacrifice for an artistic life, and what we lose of our selves when we attend to the needs of others before our own. It heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in nature writing. -- CAL FLYN, Sunday Times Writer of the Year, award-winning author of ‘Islands of Abandonment’ and ‘Thicker Than Water’All My Wild Mothers is a stunning meditation on the joy of nurturing (and of getting your hands dirty). It is a love letter to mothering and nature and mother nature, which bursts with wisdom, humility and hope. The writing is lyrical and beautiful and feels like a haven in a cynical world - exactly the book we all need to read right now. Victoria Bennett's writing is challenging and thought-provoking yet comforting and reassuring. What a wonderful book. Do read it. -- CATHERINE SIMPSON, author of 'When I Had A Little Sister'Exquisitely written, this spellbinding book is rich in traditional plant wisdom and the author's lived experience. The garden Victoria Bennett creates with her young son becomes the setting for the most moving portrait of a mother and child I've ever read: how tenacious of life and beauty they both are, even as officials keep appearing to forbid their every attempt at making things grow. This is a book of passionate resistance to everything in modern life that wants us to stay neat and small and fearful. -- TANYA SHADRICK, author of 'The Cure for Sleep'Witnessing a mother nurture her son and her garden so tenderly while grappling with grief and the responsibilities of a carer was an unexpectedly beautiful and life-affirming experience. A memoir written with tremendous care for the reader too. -- JINI REDDY, author of 'Wanderland'A fascinating, tangled read on gardening as resistance and using ancient ways to heal in the modern world.I am convinced this book planted its knowing within me as I read. It will pull at every heart-string you have but it may just bring you closer to the land we are so daily more removed from too. It will very likely call ancestors into your space as you rediscover the earth's ancient recipes we have forgotten along the way. One woman's grief, adversity and disruption could become your safe place as you take this journey with her. A beautifully written and wisely laid out memoir, or perhaps a treasure map back to 'living', for those who have been away too long. -- DONNA ASHWORTH, author of 'Wild Hope'All My Wild Mothers is a beautiful bruise of a book. Full of technicolour pain and joy -- a bruise which you cannot help but press on and a compelling story that grabs at your heart. Victoria Bennett offers us a picked-to-the-bone honesty with the rare skill of capturing important truths we have always known but never realised until we read her words.Prismatically beautiful in its honesty and telling, this book is a radical act of quiet rebellion. Staking a claim of belonging, loving and nurturing on unsure, uncertain ground - whether that's a life, home or land - and making a bewitching alchemy of it. Celebrating the strength, wisdom and resolve of women that carry the cradle of care, wounds and joy, this is a work about the precarity of rural living, and the wild magic of knowledge earned in the face of that. It is a wonderful book. An apothecary of love.All My Wild Mothers wrests nature writing from the 'lone enraptured male' and shows how our care for the natural world is inseparable from our care for each other. Family, community, soil and plants are nurtured together in this tender and moving memoir. Clear-eyed yet lyrical, Bennett shows us how grief and love, worry and delight, health and fragility move through each of our lives as inevitably as nature's seasons of loss and renewal. -- SAMANTHA CLARK, author of 'The Clearing'A beautiful, raw, meditative book on grief, mothering, and the wild both within and without. On what it means to tend a garden and a family alike, and how we find our way back to the beginning, to all that we have always known. -- KERRI NI DOCHARTAIGH, author of 'Thin Places'Intimate and immense, it's wrapping tendrils around my heart. -- AMY-JANE BEER, author of 'The Flow'Victoria Bennett stuns in this beautiful memoir of motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden. Intimately weaving memoir and herbal folklore together, this is a beautiful story of rewilding wastelands, and the transformation that can happen when we do. * Scots Magazine *Warm, questing and beautifully written -- DAN RICHARDS, author of 'Outpost'A spell-binding, richly written work which is both a memoir and a retelling of lost herbal folklore. One of this year's most captivating finds, unexpectedly unearthed from beneath the rubble of intimate loss -- DAISY BRIDGEWATER * *Emma Bridgewater's April Reads Best Books* *All My Wild Mothers is a unique memoir and more than a memoir: the whole book is an apothecary. Even the feel of the book in one's hand is healing - so soft, so pliable and comforting, so silent, even in the turning of pages. -- FR. MURRAY BODOWhat a brave, and graceful, honest and wild piece of writing. Such an important and beautiful book. -- AMAIA DADACHANJI , author of 'Wild Apothecary'A beautiful, raw, meditative book on grief, mothering, and the wild both within and without. On what it means to tend a garden and a family alike, and on how we find our way back to the beginning, to all that we have always known. -- KERRI NI DOCHARTAIGH, author of 'Thin Places'The honesty, bravery and openness of Victoria's writing was a privilege to read. -- GREG WISE, actor and author of 'Not That Kind of Love'

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Book Synopsis'A beautifully written and wisely laid out memoir . . . a treasure map back to 'living', for those who have been away too long' Donna Ashworth, author of Wild Hope'Lyrical and beautiful... the book we all need to read right now'Catherine Simpson, author of One Body An intimate memoir of motherhood, herbal folklore ALL MY WILD MOTHERS is more than just a memoir. It's a handbook on survival, and a testimony to radical hope. At seven months pregnant, Victoria Bennett learns her sister has died in a canoeing accident. In that moment, her life changes.Five years later, and struggling with the demands of motherhood, grief and full-time care, Victoria and her family move to a new social housing estate in rural Cumbria. Here, in the rubble of a former industrial site, she and her young son begin to grow a wild apothecary garden: daisy, for resilience; dandelion, for strength against adversity; sow thistle, to lift melancholy; and borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times.Stone by stone, seed by seed, they discover that sometimes life grows, not in spite what is broken, but because of it. All My Wild Mothers is a profound exploration of grief, identity, and rediscovery; a testament that life and love persists, even when we think all is lost.'Spellbinding... the most moving portrait of a mother and child I've ever read'Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure For Sleep***'An impossibly moving memoir of gardens, herbalism, and the rigours and rewards of care... It heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in nature writing' Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment 'A stunning meditation on the joy of nurturing (and of getting your hands dirty). It is a love letter to mothering and nature and mother nature, which bursts with wisdom, humility and hope. The writing is lyrical and beautiful... exactly the book we all need to read right now... What a wonderful book' Catherine Simpson, author of When I Had A Little Sister'Exquisitely written... the most moving portrait of a mother and child I've ever read... This is a book of passionate resistance to everything in modern life that wants us to stay neat and small and fearful' Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep'Beautiful and life-affirming experience. A memoir written with tremendous care for the reader' Jini Riddy, author of Wanderland'Prismatically beautiful in its honesty and telling... a wonderful book. An apothecary of love' Nicola Chester, author of On Gallows DownTrade ReviewAll My Wild Mothers is an impossibly moving memoir of gardens, herbalism, and the rigours and rewards of care. It asks what we might be willing to sacrifice for an artistic life, and what we lose of our selves when we attend to the needs of others before our own. It heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in nature writing. -- CAL FLYN, Sunday Times Writer of the Year, award-winning author of ‘Islands of Abandonment’ and ‘Thicker Than Water’All My Wild Mothers is a stunning meditation on the joy of nurturing (and of getting your hands dirty). It is a love letter to mothering and nature and mother nature, which bursts with wisdom, humility and hope. The writing is lyrical and beautiful and feels like a haven in a cynical world - exactly the book we all need to read right now. Victoria Bennett's writing is challenging and thought-provoking yet comforting and reassuring. What a wonderful book. Do read it. -- CATHERINE SIMPSON, author of 'When I Had A Little Sister'Exquisitely written, this spellbinding book is rich in traditional plant wisdom and the author's lived experience. The garden Victoria Bennett creates with her young son becomes the setting for the most moving portrait of a mother and child I've ever read: how tenacious of life and beauty they both are, even as officials keep appearing to forbid their every attempt at making things grow. This is a book of passionate resistance to everything in modern life that wants us to stay neat and small and fearful. -- TANYA SHADRICK, author of 'The Cure for Sleep'Witnessing a mother nurture her son and her garden so tenderly while grappling with grief and the responsibilities of a carer was an unexpectedly beautiful and life-affirming experience. A memoir written with tremendous care for the reader too. -- JINI REDDY, author of 'Wanderland'A fascinating, tangled read on gardening as resistance and using ancient ways to heal in the modern world.I am convinced this book planted its knowing within me as I read. It will pull at every heart-string you have but it may just bring you closer to the land we are so daily more removed from too. It will very likely call ancestors into your space as you rediscover the earth's ancient recipes we have forgotten along the way. One woman's grief, adversity and disruption could become your safe place as you take this journey with her. A beautifully written and wisely laid out memoir, or perhaps a treasure map back to 'living', for those who have been away too long. -- DONNA ASHWORTH, author of 'Wild Hope'All My Wild Mothers is a beautiful bruise of a book. Full of technicolour pain and joy -- a bruise which you cannot help but press on and a compelling story that grabs at your heart. Victoria Bennett offers us a picked-to-the-bone honesty with the rare skill of capturing important truths we have always known but never realised until we read her words.Prismatically beautiful in its honesty and telling, this book is a radical act of quiet rebellion. Staking a claim of belonging, loving and nurturing on unsure, uncertain ground - whether that's a life, home or land - and making a bewitching alchemy of it. Celebrating the strength, wisdom and resolve of women that carry the cradle of care, wounds and joy, this is a work about the precarity of rural living, and the wild magic of knowledge earned in the face of that. It is a wonderful book. An apothecary of love.All My Wild Mothers wrests nature writing from the 'lone enraptured male' and shows how our care for the natural world is inseparable from our care for each other. Family, community, soil and plants are nurtured together in this tender and moving memoir. Clear-eyed yet lyrical, Bennett shows us how grief and love, worry and delight, health and fragility move through each of our lives as inevitably as nature's seasons of loss and renewal. -- SAMANTHA CLARK, author of 'The Clearing'A beautiful, raw, meditative book on grief, mothering, and the wild both within and without. On what it means to tend a garden and a family alike, and how we find our way back to the beginning, to all that we have always known. -- KERRI NI DOCHARTAIGH, author of 'Thin Places'Intimate and immense, it's wrapping tendrils around my heart. -- AMY-JANE BEER, author of 'The Flow'Victoria Bennett stuns in this beautiful memoir of motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden. Intimately weaving memoir and herbal folklore together, this is a beautiful story of rewilding wastelands, and the transformation that can happen when we do. * Scots Magazine *Warm, questing and beautifully written -- DAN RICHARDS, author of 'Outpost'A spell-binding, richly written work which is both a memoir and a retelling of lost herbal folklore. One of this year's most captivating finds, unexpectedly unearthed from beneath the rubble of intimate loss -- DAISY BRIDGEWATER * *Emma Bridgewater's April Reads Best Books* *All My Wild Mothers is a unique memoir and more than a memoir: the whole book is an apothecary. Even the feel of the book in one's hand is healing - so soft, so pliable and comforting, so silent, even in the turning of pages. -- FR. MURRAY BODOWhat a brave, and graceful, honest and wild piece of writing. Such an important and beautiful book. -- AMAIA DADACHANJI , author of 'Wild Apothecary'A beautiful, raw, meditative book on grief, mothering, and the wild both within and without. On what it means to tend a garden and a family alike, and on how we find our way back to the beginning, to all that we have always known. -- KERRI NI DOCHARTAIGH, author of 'Thin Places'The honesty, bravery and openness of Victoria's writing was a privilege to read. -- GREG WISE, actor and author of 'Not That Kind of Love'

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Book SynopsisWritten by natural historian William Temple Hornaday and originally published in 1913, Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation argues passionately for the importance of taking every possible effort to preserve and protect the natural world and all its animal and plant inhabitants, a theme that resonates to this day.

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Book SynopsisFrom award-winning writer Leila Philip, BEAVERLAND is a masterful work of narrative science writing, a book that highlights, though history and contemporary storytelling, how this weird rodent plays an oversized role in American history and its future. She follows fur trappers who lead her through waist high water, fur traders and fur auctioneers, as well as wildlife managers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers, and the colorful group of activists known as beaver believers.Beginning with the early trans-Atlantic trade in North America, Leila Philip traces the beaver's profound influence on our nation's early economy and feverish western expansion, its first corporations and multi-millionaires. In her pursuit of this weird and wonderful animal, she introduces us to people whose lives are devoted to the beaver, including a Harvard scientist from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, who uses drones to create 3-dimensional images of beaver dams; and an environmental restoration consultant in the Chesapeake whose nickname is the "beaver whisperer".What emerges is a poignant personal narrative, a startling portrait of the secretive world of the contemporary fur trade, and an engrossing ecological and historical investigation of these heroic animals who, once trapped to the point of extinction, have returned to the landscape as one of the greatest conservation stories of the 20th century. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, BEAVERLAND reveals the profound ways in which one odd creature and the trade surrounding it has shaped history, culture, and our environment.

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Book Synopsis"Dog lovers and neuroscientists should both read this important book." -- Dr. Temple Grandin What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist and bestselling author Gregory Berns and his team did something nobody had ever attempted: they trained dogs to go into an MRI scanner -- completely awake -- so they could figure out what they think and feel. And dogs were just the beginning. In What It''s Like to Be a Dog, Berns takes us into the minds of wild animals: sea lions who can learn to dance, dolphins who can see with sound, and even the now extinct Tasmanian tiger. Berns''s latest scientific breakthroughs prove definitively that animals have feelings very much like we do -- a revelation that forces us to reconsider how we think about and treat animals. Written with insight, empathy, and humor, What It''s Like to Be a Dog is the new manifesto for animal liberation of the twenty-first century.

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Book SynopsisFrom best-selling cartoonist Adrian Raeside, a new collection of wildly funny animal-themed cartoons.Prepare to walk on the wild side with 340 full-color Raeside cartoons, now collected for the first time into a single volume. Here is a menagerie of garbage-rummaging bears, squabbling eagles, philosophizing wolves, pre-handbag alligators, artistic elephants, shedding mammoths and many more from the animal kingdom.

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Book SynopsisOrganized by region, this nature guide to more than 350 places throughout BC will satisfy those travelling in search of wildlife. Directions and information on hiking and accommodation are also included.

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Book SynopsisConcise descriptions of the animals and their tracks are combined with detailed drawings of the front and back prints, stride patterns and other important identifying aspects. A perfect guide for teachers, parents, hikers and urban explorers.

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Book SynopsisConcise descriptions of the animals and their tracks are combined with detailed drawings of the front and back prints, stride patterns and other important identifying features. Over 58 common animals from upper New York state to Tennessee appear in this compact black and white book. Perfect for hikers, teachers and parents, as well as a reference for children.

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