Description
Book SynopsisTriggered by the Covid-19 lockdown, the author, a passionate conservationist, finds himself drawing inspiration from goings-on in the small back garden of his terraced suburban house, an outdoor space that he has measured at thirteen paces long by four paces wide. Contemplating what a love of nature really means and implies, the author weaves a narrative of interlinked ideas that are integral to humanity's positive cohabitation of Earth with the rest of life.
Trade ReviewA lyrical mix of backyard naturalism, Do-It-Yourself rewilding, eco-philosophical exegeses, and reflections on "the storm of now," Joe Gray's work is a grounded meditation on how we can meet the present-day Earth calamity. Without a whiff of didacticism, Gray shows us how to listen, how to care, and how to discover the timeless joys of being Earth citizens. May humanity awaken to the love and awe that unassumingly flow from every page.; Eileen Crist, author of Abundant Earth; Thirteen Paces by Four is a book at the intersection of the timeless and the timely, the global and the most intimately local. Gray's prose powerfully illustrates how paying attention to the more-than-human world, especially in our most easily overlooked daily encounters with it, is entwined with cultivating an ethical relationship with that world. Written with an understated sophistication, the book's portraits of the wild in even the most seemingly tame environs sketch valuable and edifying points of contact between ecological principle and practice.; Luke Philip Plotica, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Virginia Tech; With Thirteen Paces by Four, Joe Gray has written a new classic of ecological literature. I take my organic cotton hat off to him. ; Patrick Curry, Editor-in-Chief of The Ecological Citizen
