Nature Writing
The World-Ending Fire
Wendell Berry
“One of America’s most powerful radical voices. In the pieces collected here he writes about the peace of nature, the food we eat, and, above all, why we must care for the land we live on.”
Paperback, Price: £9.99
The Flow, Amy Jane Beer
“… a profound, immersive exploration of our personal and ecological place in nature. Like water, it meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories.”
Paperback, Price: £10.99
The Time by the Sea, Ronald Blythe
“a tale of music and painting, creativity and landscape. It describes the first steps of an East Anglian journey, an intimate appraisal of a vivid and memorable time”
Paperback, price £10.99
Sylvan Cities, Helen Babbs
“An illustrated guide to some of the most common trees standing sentry on our street corners, and an anecdotal treasure trove of facts and history, science and leafy lore.”
Hardback, price £14.99
The Man Who Organized Nature, Gunnar Broberg
“a new biography of Carl Linnaeus, offering a vivid portrait of Linnaeus’s life and work”
Hardback, price £30.00
Bewick’s British Birds
“This edition includes more than 180 bird species, from garden favourites such as robins, blackbirds and finches, to predators such as the oosprey and the majestic golden eagle. Each entry is illustrated with an engraving, and throughout the book are narrative vignettes typical of Bewick’s playful, engaging style.”
Paperback, price £9.99
A Countryman’s Spring Notebook, Adrian Bell
“A selection of beautifully crafted essays by Adrian Bell, gathered together and introduces by Richard Hawking to form the second quartet of Bell’s writings on the seasons. Illustrations by Suffolk artist Beth Knight.”
Hardback, price: £20.00
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
“Rachel Carson’s landmark 1962 book exposed the destruction of wildlife through the use of pesticides..Silent Spring is the cornerstone of the conservation movement. Its impact was immediate, far-reaching and ultimately life-enhancing”
Paperback, price £10.99
Swimming, Roger Deakin
“This is a frog’s-eye view of the country’s best bathing holes – the rivers, rocks pools, lakes, ponds, lochs and sea that define a watery island. Charming, funny, inspiring.”
Paperback, price £3.50
Islands of Abandonment, Cal Flyn
Shortlisted, Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, 2021
“..a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and fortress islands – and what happens when humans leave and nature is allowed to reclaim its place.”
Paperback, price: £9.99
The Man Who Planted Trees
Jean Giono
Paperback, 44 pages, Pub Vintage
Price: £7.99
“While hiking through the wild lavender in a wind-swept, desolate valley in Provence, a man comes across a solitary shepherd called Elzeard Bouffier. Staying with him, he watches Elzeard sorting and then planting hundreds of acorns as he walks through the wilderness.
“Ten years later, after surviving the First World War, he visits the shepherd again. A young forest is slowly spreading over the valley – Elzeard has continued his work. Year after year the narrator returns to see the miracle being created: a verdant, green landscape that is testament to one man’s creative instinct.”
Otherlands, A World in the Making, Thomas Halliday
“Otherlands is a staggering imaginative feat: an emotional narrative that underscores the tenacity of life – yet also the fragility of seemingly permanent ecosystems, including our own. To read it is to see the last 500 million years not as an endless expanse of unfathomable time, but as a series of worlds, simultaneously fabulous and familiar.”
Hardback, price: £20.00
At Hawthorn Time, Melissa Harrison
“Building to an extraordinary climax over the course of one spring month. ‘At Hawthorn Time’ is both a clear-eyed picture of rural Britain and a heartbreaking exploration of love, land and loss.”
Paperback, price £9.99
Spring Rain
Mark Hamer
Paperback, 228 pages, Pub Vintage
Price: £10.99
In Spring Rain, a memoir, Hamer contrasts gentle reminders of boyhood moments with his recently ‘retired from being a gardener’ senior thoughts. Best bits – his descriptions of his boyhood and early nature discoveries. A reflective, gentle amble through nature, life, love, acceptance, and reconciliation.
“ ..as the boy’s pupils narrow to take in all the detail, he sees hundreds of them pouring in and out of a citadel, he imagines, below the heavy perfumed canopy…He looks up ‘Ant’ in his books, and learns that the little white bundles they hold in their jaws are babies, whom they bring out to enjoy the sun, like humans take their prams out to the park….He reads to the ants as they go about their business.”
George A Magpie Memoir, Frieda Hughes
“When George appears in the life of poet and painter Frieda Hughes, he is a tiny, belligerent scrap of feathers and bone, the sole survivor of a magpie nest wrecked in a storm. Seeing things for the first time through a magpie’s inquisitive gaze, Frieda witnesses George’s rapid development into an intelligent, unruly companion who enthrals and infuriates his new housemate in equal measure.”
Paperback, price £10.99
Sea Bean, Sally Huband
LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT NATURE WRITING PRIZE 2023
“A message in a bottle, a mermaid’s purse, a lobster trap tag, each find connects her more deeply with our oceans. But it is Sally’s quest for a fabled sea bean that unlocks the myths of these islands and carries her through chronic illness towards a new and more resilient self.”
Paperback, price £10.99
Sightlines
Kathleen Jamie
Paperback, 13 x 2.5 x 20cm, 242 pages, Pub. Sort of Books.
Price: £9.99
“Five years after Findings broke the mould of nature writing, Kathleen Jamie subtly shifts our focus on landscape and the living world, daring us to look again at the ‘natural’, the remote and the human-made. She offers us the closest of perspectives and the most distant too: from vistas of cells beneath a hospital microscope, or the pores of a whale’s jawbone under restoration… We encounter killer whales circling below cliffs, noisy colonies of breeding gannets, and paintings deep in caves.”
The Instant, Amy Liptrot
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING “Wishing to leave behind the isolation of her Orkney island life, Amy Liptrot books a one-way flight to Berlin. She rents a loftbed in a shared flat and starts to look for work – and for love – through the screen of her phone. The Instant tells of the momentous year that follows, encountering the city’s wildlife in the most unexpected places, tracing the cycles of the moon, the flight paths of migratory birds and surrendering to the addictive power of love and lust.”
Paperback, price £10.99
Feather, Leaf, Bark and Stone, Jackie Morris
“Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone is a book of poems and meditations with a difference. More than a hundred short texts have been typed onto small squares of gold leaf, then photographed. These pieces are arranged in a sequence which culminates in a glorious final section made up of texts typed directly onto leaves, bark and feathers.
Jackie started to write the pieces shortly after her father died, and for the first time ever she found herself unable to paint. The words grew out of her grief and, guided by her deep intimacy with the natural world, these objects emerged to fill the space her paintings had left behind. This book is full of the light and wind that fills the Pembrokeshire coast where it was crafted, each page anchored to the landscape by the mechanical rhythm of Jackie’s antique typewriters.
The result is a collection of individual artworks to be both looked at and read. It is poetry re-imagined by a visual artist; words transformed back into their original function as images. Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone announces a new departure for Jackie Morris and confirms her as an artist and writer at the peak of her power.”
Hardback, price £20.00
Wintering, Katherine May
“THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
‘A beautiful, gentle exploration of the dark season of life and the light of spring that eventually follows’ RAYNOR WINN’
My favourite book of the last five years’ CAITLIN MORAN
“Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life.”
Paperback, Price £10.99
Cornerstones, Wild Forces That Can Change our World, Benedict Macdonald
FINALIST IN THE PEOPLE’S BOOK PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2022/2023
WRITTEN BY THE WAINWRIGHT-CONSERVATION-PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF REBIRDING.
” From familiar yet imperilled honeybees and ancient oak woods to returning natives like beavers and boars, Britain’s cornerstone species may hold the key to recovering our biodiversity on land and in our seas. In Cornerstones, we discover how beavers craft wetlands, save fish, encourage otters, and prevent rivers from flooding. We learn how ‘disruptive’ boars are seasoned butterfly conservationists, why whales are crucial for restoring seabird cities and how wolves and lynx could save our trees, help sequester carbon and protect our most threatened birds.
Benedict Macdonald transforms our understanding of the natural world forever, revealing lives that once supported extraordinary natural riches and explaining how humans are the most important cornerstone species of all and can become the greatest stewards of the natural world.”
Paperback, price £10.99
Singing Like Larks, A Celebration of Birds in Folk Songs, Andrew Millham
“Singing Like Larks opens a rare window onto the ancient song traditions of the British Isles, interweaving mesmerising lyrics, folklore and colourful nature writing to uncover the remarkable relationship between birds and traditional folk music. Birds are beloved for their song and have featured in our own music for centuries. This charming volume takes us on a journey of discovery to explore why birds appear in so many folk songs.
Today, folk songs featuring our feathered friends are themselves something of a threatened species: their melodies are fading with the passage of time, and their lyrics are often tucked away in archives. It is more important than ever that we promote awareness of these precious songs and continue to pass them down the generations. Lifetimes of wisdom are etched into the words and music, preserving the natural rhythms of nature and our connection to times past.
An important repository and treasury of bird-related folk songs, Singing Like Larks is also an account of one young nature writer’s journey into the world of folk music, and a joyous celebration of song, the seasons, and our love of birds.”
Price £12.99
The Wild Places, Robert Macfarlane
“Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? From forest to moor, mountain to saltmarsh, Robert Macfarlane explores the wild places of Britain to see the wonders we still possess. In his bewitching and inspiring modern classic of nature writing, the acclaimed author of Underland and The Lost Words presents a portrait of a vanishing but still miraculous British landscape. “
Paperback, price £9.99
Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE
“Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. It is a field guide to the literature of nature, and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to describe land, nature and weather.
Travelling from Cumbria to the Cairngorms, and exploring the landscapes of Roger Deakin, J. A. Baker, Nan Shepherd and others, Robert Macfarlane shows that language, well used, is a keen way of knowing landscape, and a vital means of coming to love it.”
Paperback, price £9.99
The Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery
“Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of the octopus, but also tells a love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about consciousness and the meeting of two very different minds.”
Paperback, price £8.99
A Fortunate Woman, Polly Morland
“When Polly Morland is clearing out her mother’s house she finds a book that will lead her to a remarkable figure living on her own doorstep: the country doctor who works in the same remote, wooded valley she has lived in for many years. This doctor is a rarity in contemporary medicine. She knows her patients inside out, and their stories are deeply entwined with her own. In A Fortunate Woman, with its beautiful photographs by Richard Baker, Polly Morland has written a profoundly moving love letter to a landscape, a community and, above all, to what it means to be a good doctor.”
Paperback, price £9.99
English Pastoral, James Rebanks
“.. this elegy from the northern fells is also a song of hope: of how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England that was now his, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future. This is a book about what it means to have love and pride in a place, and how, against all the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all.”
Paperback, price £10.99
The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd
“In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others.
Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the ‘essential nature’ of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.”
Price £9.99
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, Henry David Thoreau
“Thoreau’s account of his solitary and self-sufficient home in the New England woods remains an inspiration to the environmental movement – a call to his fellow men to abandon their striving, materialistic existences of ‘quiet desperation’ for a simple life within their means, finding spiritual truth through awareness of the sheer beauty of their surroundings.”
Paperback, £4.99
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
“Walden is Thoreau’s classic autobiographical account of this experiment in solitary living, his refusal to play by the rules of hard work and the accumulation of wealth and above all the freedom it gave him to adapt his living to the natural world around him. This new edition of Walden traces the sources of Thoreau’s reading and thinking and considers the author in the context of his birthplace and his sense of its history – social, economic and natural.
In addition, an ecological appendix provides modern identifications of the myriad plants and animals to which Thoreau gave increasingly close attention as he became acclimatized to his life in the woods by Walden Pond”
Paperback, price £7.99
A Spell in the Wild, Alice Tarbuck
“In A Spell in the Wild, Alice Tarbuck explores what it means to be a witch today. Rooted in the real world, but filled with spells, rituals and recipes, this book is an accessible, seasonal guide to witchcraft in the twenty-first century. Following the course of a witch’s calendar year while also exploring the history and politics of witchcraft, A Spell in the Wild is the perfect primer for the contemporary witch.”
Paperback, price £9.99
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The Forager’s Calendar, A Seasonal Guide to Nature’s Wild Harvests, John Wright
“From dandelions in spring to sloe berries in autumn, via wild garlic, samphire, chanterelles and even grasshoppers, our countryside is full of edible delights in any season. John Wright is the country’s foremost expert in foraging and brings decades of experience, including as forager at the River Cottage, to this seasonal guide. Month by month, he shows us what species can be found and where, how to identify them, and how to store, use and cook them.
You’ll learn the stories behind the Latin names, the best way to tap a Birch tree, and how to fry an ant, make rosehip syrup and cook a hop omelette. Fully illustrated throughout, with tips on kit, conservation advice and what to avoid, this is an indispensable guide for everyone interested in wild food, whether you want to explore the great outdoors, or are happiest foraging from your armchair.”
Paperback, price £12.99
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
“Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall. Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky.
Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey. The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.”
Paperback, price: £10.99
The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn
“It was the land, the earth, the deep humming background to my very being’ In 2016, days before they were unjustly evicted from their home, Raynor Winn was told her husband Moth was dying. Instead of giving up they embarked on a life-changing journey: walking the 630-mile South West Coast Path, living by their wits, determination and love of nature.
But all journeys must end and when the couple return to civilisation they find that four walls feel like a prison, cutting them off from the sea and sky that sustained them – that had saved Moth’s life. So when the chance to rewild an old Cornish farm comes their way, they grasp it, hoping they’ll not only reconnect with the natural world but also find themselves once again on its healing path . .”
Paperback price £10.99
Landlines, Raynor Winn
“Raynor knows that her husband Moth’s health is declining, getting worse by the day. She knows of only one cure: the healing power of walking. Embarking on a journey across the Cape Wrath Trail, over 200 miles of gruelling terrain through Scotland’s remotest mountains and lochs, Raynor and Moth look to an uncertain future.
Fearing that miracles don’t often repeat themselves. But for all the physical struggle, there is healing. And so when their journey ends, they do what they know best: they keep walking .”
Paperback, price £10.99