Had enough? Feeling hopeless? Don't give up - join the rebellion.

Activist, journalist, founding leader of the Women's Equality Party and 'modern-day suffragette' (Evening Standard) Sophie Walker presents an inspiring, five-step journey to incorporating activism into our lives. Featuring stories of new and seasoned activists - including Amika George and Jack Monroe - campaigning on a range of issues from reproductive rights and poverty to the environment and access to education - the book shows us how to see activism not as a series of pitched battles but as a positive, lifelong learning experience.

Escape the numbing effects of despair, learn to channel anger, arm yourself with hope, practise perseverance and connect with others compassionately. Five Rules for Rebellion explains how we can convert our confusion and impatience into a powerful force for change.

'Thoroughly engaging, empowering and inspiring ...blows invigorating air into the weary world of politics and makes you want to get out there NOW and do something about it' - Ailbhe Smyth, co-director of Together For Yes and convenor of Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment

'If bravery itself could write, it would write like she does' John Berger

Why rebel? Because our footprint on the Earth has never mattered more than now. How we treat it, in the spirit of gift or of theft, has never been more important. Because we need a politics of kindness, but the very opposite is on the rise.

Libertarian fascism, with its triumphal brutalism, its racism and misogyny - a politics that loathes the living world. Because nature is not a hobby. It is the life on which we depend, as Indigenous societies have never forgotten. Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars, and they are lining up now to write rebellion across the skies.
From the author of Wild, this passionate, poetic manifesto for urgent rebellion is also a paean to the deep and extraordinary beauty of the natural world. 'Jay's writing has reduced me to hot throbs of grief; through beauty and subtlety, to the depths of the hurt of these times .

. . and what a liberation to express this, to free the space in my chest to feel the love that propels me forwards' Gail Bradbrook'Chewy, erudite, filled with swing: this is a dazzling book, urgent without ever being worthy, a book that crackles.

Why Rebel is a Tardis, to read it is to enter the massive, a deep interior that hydrates vocation in a time of trouble' Martin Shaw'This short book is beautifully written, and packs a powerful emotional punch. I found myself welling up as I reached the end. At this desperate moment in human history, Why Rebel is surely part of the wake-up call we need' Prof.

Rupert Read'There's a book called Life and Fate and in it, it says that when surrounded by death and destruction the most human thing to do is to engage in an act of kindness. Jay's book is such an act' Roger Hallam

The original biodynamic sowing and planting calendar celebrates its 60th anniversary with a new, easy-to-view layout featuring more detailed planting, tending and harvesting information to help growers maximise the yield and vitality of crops and plants. Trusted by generations of farmers and gardeners, the refreshed design marks a new era for the ultimate biodynamic calendar. The new-look calendar features:-- A clearer, easy-to-view layout making it simpler to plan what to do and when-- More space dedicated to detailed explanations of the recommended activities-- New information panels make it easier to use-- Clearer headings and sections for faster look-ups-- More detailed planting, tending and harvesting information to maximise the yield and vitality of crops and plants-- Redesigned to work for both seasoned biodynamic farmers and beginner gardeners-- Solar and lunar events, plus information on planetary aspects, are given dedicated space A new, refreshed design of the trusted sowing and planting calendar for both seasoned growers and beginners.

Something is stirring. People around the world are deciding that the well-being of their community and its economy lies with them. They're people like you.

They've had enough, and, rather than waiting for permission, they're rolling up their sleeves, getting together with friends and neighbours, and doing something about it. Whether they start small or big, they're finding that just doing stuff can transform their neighbourhoods and their lives. The Power of Just Doing Stuff argues that this shift represents the seeds of a new economy - the answer to our desperate search for a new way forward - and at its heart is people deciding that change starts with them.

Communities worldwide are already modelling a more local economy rooted in place, in well-being, in entrepreneurship, and in creativity. And it works. Packed with inspiring real-life examples of how to change things, this book ties in with the increasing focus on community action during tough economic times.

It will appeal to schools, community groups and campaigners as well as the general public and Transition groups.

We know there's a climate emergency but what does that mean we should do? What does a 'better future' look like and how do we get there? Having spent over a decade on the frontlines of climate activism - organising, campaigning, and holding the powerful to account - Tamsin Omond discovered first-hand that this crisis is too big for one group of activists to solve. It needs everyone. Do Earth is about collective action and community engagement.

It's about healing our relationships with nature, each other and ourselves; and feeling inspired about what the next phase of human evolution might be. With practical guidance and gentle encouragement, Do Earth provides a blueprint for reimagining the world and reviving our beautiful planet.

Longlisted for The Wainwright Prize 2019. The late Lynne Roper's wild swimming diaries celebrate Dartmoor, the Devon coast, and the deep friendships that grow from shared time in nature. By turns quietly lyrical and frankly comic, this is a book for outdoor swimmers, walkers, and all who prize the wild and free.

Worried about a big meeting? Can't sleep? Low on energy? Discover the powerful herbs and flowers that can help you to live your best life. Learn which herbs and flowers will aid calm, happiness, boost energy and how you can work simple natural remedies into your daily routine. This is a down-to-earth, expert introduction to the life-changing powers of nature's potent remedies from forager, herbalist and wild plant medicine teacher Brigit Anna McNeill.

by Nick Hayes
Format: Paperback / softback 464 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN:9781526604729
Published:8 Jul 2021
Classifications: Land rights, Public ownership / nationalization, Offences against property, The countryside, country life
Readership: General (US: Trade) Professional & Vocational Tertiary Education (US: College)
Weight:376g
Dimensions:129 x 197 x 39 (mm)
Pub. Country: United Kingdom

'A formidable, brave and important book' Robert Macfarlane

Who owns England? Behind this simple question lies this country's oldest and best-kept secret. This is the history of how England's elite came to own our land, and an inspiring manifesto for how to open up our countryside once more. This book has been a long time coming.

Since 1086, in fact. For centuries, England's elite have covered up how they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying surveys and more recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Freedom of Information Act, it's becoming increasingly difficult for them to hide.

Trespassing through tightly-guarded country estates, ecologically ravaged grouse moors and empty Mayfair mansions, writer and activist Guy Shrubsole has used these 21st century tools to uncover a wealth of never-before-seen information about the people who own our land, to create the most comprehensive map of land ownership in England that has ever been made public. From secret military islands to tunnels deep beneath London, Shrubsole unearths truths concealed since the Domesday Book about who is really in charge of this country - at a time when Brexit is meant to be returning sovereignty to the people. Melding history, politics and polemic, he vividly demonstrates how taking control of land ownership is key to tackling everything from the housing crisis to climate change - and even halting the erosion of our very democracy.

It's time to expose the truth about who owns England - and finally take back our green and pleasant land.

The islands of Britain and Ireland hold a rich heritage of plant folklore and wisdom, from the magical yew tree to the bad-tempered dandelion. Here are traditional tales about the trees and plants that shape our landscapes and our lives through the seasons. They explore the complex relationship between people and plants, in lowlands and uplands, fields, bogs, moors, woodlands and towns.

Suitable for all ages, this is an essential collection of stories for anyone interested in botany, the environment and our living heritage.

Once upon a time, most of Britain and Ireland was covered in woodland. Many of the trees have been cleared, but our connection with the wildwood remains. It is a place of danger, adventure and transformation, where anything could happen.

Here is a collection of traditional folk tales of oak, ash and thorn; of hunting forests and rebellion, timber and triumph in battle, wild ghosts and woodwoses. Lisa Schneidau retells some of the old stories and relates them to the trees and forests in the landscape of our islands today.

If Women Rose Rooted has been described as both transformative and essential. Sharon Blackie leads the reader on a quest to find their place in the world, drawing inspiration from the wise and powerful women in native mythology, and guidance from contemporary role models who have re-rooted themselves in land and community and taken responsibility for shaping the future. Beautifully written, honest and moving, If Women Rose Rooted is a passionate song to a different kind of femininity, a rallying, feminist cry for the rewilding of womanhood; reclaiming our role as guardians of the land.

Satish Kumar and his friend E.P. Menon embarked on an 8,000-mile peace pilgrimage from India to Washington, from the grave of Mahatma Gandhi to the grave of John F Kennedy. Walking at the height of the cold war, taking no money with them and declining all offers of transport and donations, they talked to heads of state around the world and met with peace activists such as Martin Luther King Jr.

along the way. Kumar, author of No Destination and Earth Pilgrim, tells the story of their pilgrimage in this autobiography. When the philosopher Bertrand Russell was imprisoned for his anti-nuclear activities, this was a call to action for Kumar.

If a 90-year-old man would go to jail for peace, what could Kumar contribute to the struggle? So he set out to walk to the four nuclear capitals of the world - Moscow, Paris, London and Washington. A young Georgian woman he met along the way gave him packets of tea to give to the leaders of these countries, so that they would stop and have a cup of tea when they might "get the mad impulse to press the nuclear button". He was determined to deliver a packet of this Peace Tea to each of the leaders.

From New Delhi to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the Soviet Union, through Poland, East and West Germany, Belgium, France and England, to the US and finally Japan, Kumar and Menon walked for two and a half years. They faced severe challenges - walking illegally without a visa in the Soviet Union, imprisonment in France and experiencing the Jim Crow laws in the USA - but everywhere they were met with incredible generosity from the people who housed and fed them. Pilgrimage for Peace is a book about trust - in yourself, your companions, and humanity - about confidence, resilience and the courage to stretch your limits.

It is an ode to the power and the solace of pilgrimage, to peace, disarmament and hospitality. It is an adventure story that shows how travel can bring people together in hope and help them understand one another. It demonstrates how you don't always need money to see the world, just time and patience.

With conflict and war constantly in the news today, this book is a timely testament not only to these pilgrims for peace, but to the many people who cheered them on their way, seeing in them the harbinger of a new peaceful future.

Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, plastics, pandemics - the list of concerns seems endless. But what is most pressing, and what should we do first? Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? How can we take control of technology? And, given the global nature of the challenges we now face, what on Earth can any of us do, as individuals? Mike Berners-Lee has crunched the numbers and plotted a course of action that is full of hope, practical, and enjoyable. This is the big-picture perspective on the environmental and economic challenges of our day, laid out in one place, and traced through to the underlying roots - questions of how we live and think.

This updated edition has new material on protests, pandemics, wildfires, investments, carbon targets and of course, on the key question: given all this, what can I do?

Imagine living for an entire year without money. Where do you live? What do you eat? How do you stay in touch with your friends and family?Former businessman Mark Boyle thought he'd give it a try. In a world of seasonal foods, solar panels, skill-swapping schemes, cuttlefish toothpaste, and compost toilets, Boyle puts the fun into frugality and offers some great tips for economical and environmentally friendly living.

By following his own strict rules, he learns ingenious ways to eliminate his bills and flourish for free. Heart-warming, witty, and full of money-saving tips, The Moneyless Man will inspire you to ask what really matters in life.

It was 11pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever. No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce.

In this honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life without modern technology, Mark Boyle explores the hard won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the spring, foraging and fishing. What he finds is an elemental life, one governed by the rhythms of the sun and seasons, where life and death dance in a primal landscape of blood, wood, muck, water, and fire - much the same life we have lived for most of our time on earth. Revisiting it brings a deep insight into what it means to be human at a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.

Today, our lives are dominated by an ideology of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. But we cannot replace it without a positive vision, one that reengages people in politics and lights a path to a better world.

Urgent and passionate, George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast humans in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators. He shows how both democracy and economic life can be radically reorganised from the bottom up, enabling us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society. Out of the Wreckage explains just how communities can be rebuilt with the help of a new "politics of belonging".

Tales of escape and adventure on Britain's waterwaysIn The Pull of the River two foolhardy explorers do what we would all love to do: they turn their world upside down and seek adventure on their very own doorstep. In a handsome, homemade canoe, painted a joyous nautical red the colour of Mae West's lips, Matt and his friend James delve into a watery landscape that invites us to see the world through new eyes. Over chalk, gravel, clay and mud; through fields, woodland, villages, towns and cities, they reveal many places that otherwise go unnoticed and perhaps unloved, finding delight in the Waveney, Stour, Alde/Ore, upper and lower Thames, Lark, Great Ouse, Granta and Cam, Wye, Otter, Colne, Severn and the Great Glen Trail.

Showing that it is still possible to get lost while knowing exactly where you are, The Pull of the River is a beautifully written exploration of nature, place and friendship, and an ode to the great art - and joy - of adventure.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING

Lev Parikian is on a joyful journey to discover the quirks, habits and wonders of how we experience nature. ___It's often said that we're a nation of nature lovers, but what does that really mean? Lev Parikian sets out to explore the many ways that he, and we, experience the natural world - from pavement to garden and from wildlife reserve to far-flung island. He visits the haunts of famous nature lovers to examine their insatiable curiosity; meets ramblers, birders and den-builders; and gets up close and personal with the nature he finds everywhere - including the kitchen sink.

Open a window, hear the birds calling and join this warm and generous journey into the tangled bank.

'If, like me, you've got more *into nature* in the last few months, but sometimes feel a bit excluded by nature writing, then this book will make you feel included and welcomed.' Tracey Thorn

'A witty, touching and profound book about one man's burgeoning relationship with the natural world - and it's also a joy to read.' Stephen Moss

'Lev's endearing child-like joy at even the smallest of encounters is infectious.' BBC Wildlife Magazine

Sunday Times Bestseller and Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September)

Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings?

In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

A walk in the woods will never be the same again.

An exploration of the invisible connections sustaining the entire natural world from the bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees Did you know that trees can influence the rotation of the earth?Or that wolves can alter the course of a river?Or that earthworms control wild boar populations?The natural world is a web of intricate connections, many of which go unnoticed by humans. But it is these connections that maintain nature's finely balanced equilibrium. Drawing on the latest scientific discoveries and decades of experience as a forester, Peter Wohlleben shows us how different animals, plants, rivers, rocks and weather systems cooperate, and what's at stake when these delicate systems are unbalanced.

'Peter Wohlleben doesn't merely look, he sees. Let's all learn as much from him as we can, and quickly' Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows

Can horses feel shame? Do deer grieve? Why do roosters deceive hens? We tend to assume that we are the only living things able to experience feelings but have you ever wondered what's going on in an animal's head? From the leafy forest floor to the inside of a bee hive, The Inner Life of Animals opens up the animal kingdom like never before. We hear the stories of a grateful humpback whale, of a hedgehog who has nightmares, and of a magpie who commits adultery; we meet bees that plan for the future, pigs who learn their own names and crows that go tobogganing for fun. And at last we find out why wasps exist.

Bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben, invites you to reconnect with natureAs soon as we step out of the door, nature surrounds. Thousands of small and large processes are taking place, details that are long often fascinating and beautiful. But we've long forgotten how to recognise them.

Peter Wohlleben, bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees, invites us to become an expert, to take a closer look and interpret the signs that clouds, wind, plants and animals convey. Chaffinches become weather prophets, bees are live thermometers, courgettes tell us the time. The Weather Detective combines scientific research with charming anecdotes to explain the extraordinary cycles of life, death and regeneration that are evolving on our doorstep, bringing us closer to nature than ever before.

A walk in the park will never be the same again.

Image for H is for Hawk
Click to enlarge
H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald (Author)
Format:Paperback / softback 320 pages
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Imprint:Vintage
ISBN:9780099575450
Published:26 Feb 2015
Classifications:Wildlife: birds & birdwatching
Readership:General (US: Trade)
Weight:258g
Dimensions:196 x 129 x 21 (mm)
Pub. Country:United Kingdom
For sale in: United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, France, (See full list)
Description
Discover the number one bestselling phenomenon that is a powerful and profound mediation on grief expressed through the trials of training a goshawk. As a child, Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer, learning the arcane terminology and reading all the classic books. Years later, when her father died and she was struck deeply by grief, she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk.

She bought Mabel for GBP800 on a Scottish quayside and took her home to Cambridge, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals. H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. This is a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.

'This beautiful book is at once heartfelt and clever in the way it mixes elegy with celebration' Andrew Motion
'It just sings. I couldn't stop reading' Mark Haddon, bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Dazzling... Deeply affecting, utterly fascinating and blazing with love and intelligence' Financial Times

From the bestselling author of H is for Hawk comes Vesper Flights, a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world. Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best-loved writing along with new pieces covering a thrilling range of subjects.

There are essays here on headaches, on catching swans, on hunting mushrooms, on twentieth-century spies, on numinous experiences and high-rise buildings; on nests and wild pigs and the tribulations of farming ostriches. Vesper Flights is a book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make the world around us. Moving and frank, personal and political, it confirms Helen Macdonald as one of this century's greatest nature writers.

**CHOSEN AS A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK TO WATCH OUT FOR AND A NEW STATESMAN BOOK TO READ**

Worried about a big meeting? Can't sleep? Low on energy? Discover the powerful herbs and flowers that can help you to live your best life. Learn which herbs and flowers will aid calm, happiness, boost energy and how you can work simple natural remedies into your daily routine. This is a down-to-earth, expert introduction to the life-changing powers of nature's potent remedies from forager, herbalist and wild plant medicine teacher Brigit Anna McNeill.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

A bold new history of how botany and global plant collecting - centred at Kew Gardens and driven by Joseph Banks - transformed the earth.

Botany was the darling and the powerhouse of the eighteenth century. As European ships ventured across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, discovery bloomed. Bounties of new plants were brought back, and their arrival meant much more than improved flowerbeds - it offered a new scientific frontier that would transform Europe's industry, medicine, eating and drinking habits, and even fashion.

Joseph Banks was the dynamo for this momentous change. As botanist for James Cook's great voyage to the South Pacific on the Endeavour, Banks collected plants on a vast scale, armed with the vision - as a child of the Enlightenment - that to travel physically was to advance intellectually. His thinking was as intrepid as Cook's seafaring: he commissioned radically influential and physically daring expeditions such as those of Francis Masson to the Cape Colony, George Staunton to China, George Caley to Australia, William Bligh to Tahiti and Jamaica, among many others.

Jordan Goodman's epic history follows these high seas adventurers and their influence in Europe, as well as taking us back to the early years of Kew Gardens, which Banks developed devotedly across the course of his life, transforming it into one of the world's largest and most diverse botanical gardens. In a rip-roaring global expedition, based on original sources in many languages, Goodman gives a momentous history of how the discoveries made by Banks and his collectors advanced scientific understanding around the world.

'He writes so engagingly that it's hard to imagine that actual foraging can be more attractive than reading his accounts of it. ...[This book] is a treasure. It is beautifully produced, designed and illustrated.'

Look out of your window, walk down a country path or go to the beach in Great Britain, and you are sure to see many wild species that you can take home and eat.

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.

It is difficult to think of a more quintessential symbol of the British countryside than the British Hedgerow, bursting with blackberries, hazelnuts and sloes, and home to oak and ash, field mice and butterflies. But as much as we might dream about foraging for mushrooms or collecting wayside nettles for soup, most of us are unaware of quite how profoundly hedgerows have shaped the history of our landscape and our fellow species. One of Britain's best known naturalists, John Wright introduces us to the natural and cultural history of hedges (as well as ditches, dykes and dry stone walls) - from the arrival of the first settlers in the British Isles to the modern day, when we have finally begun to recognise the importance of these unique ecosystems.

His intimate knowledge of the countryside and its inhabitants brings this guide to life, whether discussing the skills and craft of hedge maintenance or the rich variety of animals, plants, algae and fungi who call them home. Informative, practical, entertaining and richly illustrated in colour throughout, A Natural History of the Hedgerow is a book to stuff into your pocket for country walks in every season, or to savour in winter before a roaring fire.

The Hedgerow Handbook is the ultimate guide for nature lovers and foragers alike. If there's one distinctive feature of the British countryside, it has to be the hedgerow. In fact, hedgerows are such an established part of our landscape that sometimes we take them for granted.

But take a closer look, and the diversity and variety of plant species that form them is little short of wondrous. And it is not only plant life that thrives in abundance in the hedgerow - native wild animals, birds and insects are protected and nourished by them. We know that at least 65 species of birds live in our hedgerows and that they are crucial to the survival of moths, bats and dormice.

From angelica to ash and bird cherry to borage, from pineapple weed to plantain and wild garlic to wimberries, each entry is accompanied by an exquisite full colour illustration to help you identify each plant or flower, along with its history and folklore, and culinary and medicinal uses. You won't find yet another recipe for blackberry pie nor nettle soup here, however - this is not your run-of-the mill hedgerow book. Instead, why not try Adele's Spicy Ash Key Pickle, her Beechnut Turron, Red Clover Lemonade or Wild Raspberry Vodka? The Hedgerow Handbook is much more than a foraging book - it is an inspiration and a trigger for a new experience of our countryside.

Witch's Garden describes over 50 of the world's most powerful magical plants and their uses, mythical and proven. Wise women, apothecaries, witches, herbalists: whatever you call them, those who cultivate plants for their fabled mystical and healing properties have existed for thousands of years. From the screaming mandrake to calming St John's Wort, the history of esoteric species is often as dark and elusive as the art of herbalism itself.

Including tales of remedies for everything from bad weather and broken hearts to protection from evil and the invocation of immortality, Witch's Garden features exquisite botanical illustrations and fascinating specimens held within the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while archival images depicting occult practices evoke the bewitching nature of these mysterious species.

Learn to forage in the hedgerows like the herbalists of the past with this best-selling beginner's guide. For centuries our ancestors looked to nature not just for food, but also for healing. To this day, our ancient hedgerows, woodlands and forests are still full of remedies - and they're waiting to be discovered.

This is the essential guide to enjoying the bountiful delights of the natural world. Learn how to make delicious preserves, healing balms, soothing toddies and cures for colds with nature's jewels such as rose hips, elderberries and mugwort. You will also find:Photographs to help you safely identify edible plantsAdvice on what is available in each seasonGuidance on how best to prepare and preserve your findsThe fascinating folklore and history of foragingEvery walk is an opportunity to learn, identify a new plant, gather something to eat and reconnect with nature - so dive in to begin your foraging adventure.

RHS Weeds gathers together 50 untamed and beautifully wild plant species, illustrated with exquisite botanical images. These subversive species no longer need to be seen as 'plants out of place'. In the modern garden, where harmony with nature and the ability to thrive under challenging conditions are key, weeds are finally getting their moment in the sun.

RHS Weeds highlights the delicate charms of some of the most fascinating vagabond plants around. Beautiful botanical illustrations, including many from the Royal Horticultural Society's collections, and captivating profiles by RHS author Gareth Richards, provide key information for the modern gardener on the characteristics, usefulness and cultivation of these unsung heroes of the plant world.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Glennie Kindred inspires us to celebrate the bounties of our wild native plants and find a richer relationship with the natural world around us. Season by season, we are shown how to grow and manage native edible and medicinal plants in our gardens or on the wild edges of the land. Included are foraging tips and many recipes for making kitchen medicines and delicious food from our finds.

By letting the wild native plants into our lives, Glennie helps us reconnect with our rich herbal heritage and enter into a new relationship with our local environment. She encourages us to forage, grow, and eat our edible natives, season by season, and also to strengthen our health with their healing properties. She explores many different ways to mark and celebrate the seasons, especially outside on the land, which support our ability to adapt and grow for the benefit of the Earth and ourselves.

This is a practical, optimistic and inspirational treasure trove for a more creative, integrated, self-reliant future.

From the best-selling author of The Hedgerow ApothecaryLearn how to make the most of your common garden plants like the herbalists of the pastUnlock the sustainable and ethical art of the apothecarist, and explore its rich folklore and history. Discover the hidden delights in your own garden and how to use them to make delicious edible treats, herbal cures and restorative beauty products. With photographs to help you safely identify edible plants and tips on how best to prepare and preserve your finds, this is the essential guide to enjoying the home-grown riches of your garden.

Enjoy the therapeutic delights of the plants to be found in your own garden with easy-to-follow recipes. Heal dry hands with calendula balm. Encourage restful sleep with cherry moon milk. Get creative with a vivid blue ink made from cornflowers. Try a borage infusion for tired eyes. Soothe itchy skin with herbal bath tea. Bake a delicious nettle and lemon sponge cake. Freshen up with a rosemary mouthwash. Enjoy a cool glass of red clover lemonade. And much more!

The Secrets to Healing, Resilience and Immunity With the Most Powerful Natural Medicine in HistoryFrom the bestselling author of Keto DietLong before the first pharmaceutical companies opened their doors in the 1850s, doctors treated people, not symptoms. And although we've become used to popping pills, patients have finally had it with the dangerous side effects, addiction and over-prescribing - and they're desperate for an alternative. Here's the good news: that alternative has been here all along in the form of ancient treatments used for eons in traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic and Greek medicine.

Ancient Remedies for Modern Life is the first comprehensive layman's guide that will bring together and explain to the masses the very best of these time-tested practices. Bestselling author Dr. Axe explores the foundational concepts of ancient healing - eating right for your type and living in sync with your circadian clock.

Readers will learn how traditional practitioners identified the root cause of each patient's illness, then treated it with medicinal herbs, mushrooms, CBD, essential oils and restorative mind-body practices. What's more, they'll discover how they can use these ancient treatments themselves to cope with dozens of diseases, from ADHD to diabetes, hypothyroidism, autoimmune disease and beyond. Through engaging language and accessible explanations, Ancient Remedies for Modern Life offers readers everything they need to know about getting, and staying, healthy - without toxic, costly synthetic drugs.

An essential guide to every species of tree found in the British Isles outside of arboretums This easy-to-use guide covers the 360 species of tree that are found in Britain & Ireland. Each species is covered in detail with information on how to identify, whether from a leaf, twig, bark or whole tree, plus extra information on where the tree grows (including a map), how high they grow, what uses the tree is used for and its unique history. Every species is also comprehensively illustrated with photographs of every useful feature - bark, leaf, seed, flower, twig and whole tree.

Sample identification section:Silver Birch Betula pendula (Betulaceae) height to 26mA slender, fast-growing deciduous tree with a narrow, tapering crown when young and growing vigorously. Older trees acquire a weeping habit, especially if growing in an open, uncrowded situation.

Millions of people are interested in natural and holistic health, yet many are missing out on the key ingredient: Nature itself! Rekindle your connection with the earth as you craft your own herbal medicine with 75 delicious recipes and powerful healing remedies. Herbalists Rosalee de la Foret and Emily Han expertly guide you through the benefits of two dozen of the most important and commonly found wild plants-many of which you can easily grow in your own garden, if foraging isn't right for you. Detailed illustrations and beautiful photography ensure that you won't make a plant-identification misstep as you learn how to tend and properly harvest the plant medicine growing right in your own neighborhood.

After reading Wild Remedies, you'll never look at your backyard, a public park, or any green space in the same way again. Instead of "weeds," you'll see delicious foods like Dandelion Maple Syrup Cake, Nettle Frittata, and Chickweed Pesto. You will revel in nature's pharmacy as you make herbal oils, salves, teas, and many more powerful remedies in your own kitchen.

From the common stinging nettle to exotic adaptogens, the plant world is the most incredible medicine cabinet. With detailed profiles of more than 140 herbs, be inspired by this beautiful book to bring more plants into your life for health and happiness. A 'herbal' is essentially a book that contains a list of plants with notes on each plant's identification and uses.

They were also often a family reference passed down through the generations like a recipe book, with remedies passed from mothers to daughters. Herbals would be used as reminders of when and how to harvest and prepare herbs, empowering families to look after their health. In Healing with Plants: The Chelsea Physic Garden Herbal, discover how to make your own simple herbal remedies, ideas for how to create a healing herb garden and how to forage for herbs in the wild.

A history of healing and fascinating stories are told, including a guide to which ailments each herb can treat and how to use them, from healing trauma with St John's Wort to soothing a sore throat with an infusion of thyme and honey. The herbs included are those most well known for having some therapeutic benefit or that have made significant contributions to the history of medicine. Most are also easily accessible for preparing simple healing home remedies, mainly because they are common garden or hedgerow plants.

Charged with possibility and power, this memorable collection is an extraordinary immersion into the bodies and voices, mindscapes and landscapes, of the shapeshifting women of our native folklore. Drawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia, these stories are about coming to terms with our animal natures, exploring the ways in which we might renegotiate our fractured relationship with the natural world, and uncovering the wildness and wilderness within.

Tales of escape and adventure on Britain's waterwaysIn The Pull of the River two foolhardy explorers do what we would all love to do: they turn their world upside down and seek adventure on their very own doorstep. In a handsome, homemade canoe, painted a joyous nautical red the colour of Mae West's lips, Matt and his friend James delve into a watery landscape that invites us to see the world through new eyes. Over chalk, gravel, clay and mud; through fields, woodland, villages, towns and cities, they reveal many places that otherwise go unnoticed and perhaps unloved, finding delight in the Waveney, Stour, Alde/Ore, upper and lower Thames, Lark, Great Ouse, Granta and Cam, Wye, Otter, Colne, Severn and the Great Glen Trail.

Showing that it is still possible to get lost while knowing exactly where you are, The Pull of the River is a beautifully written exploration of nature, place and friendship, and an ode to the great art - and joy - of adventure.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING

Lev Parikian is on a joyful journey to discover the quirks, habits and wonders of how we experience nature. ___It's often said that we're a nation of nature lovers, but what does that really mean? Lev Parikian sets out to explore the many ways that he, and we, experience the natural world - from pavement to garden and from wildlife reserve to far-flung island. He visits the haunts of famous nature lovers to examine their insatiable curiosity; meets ramblers, birders and den-builders; and gets up close and personal with the nature he finds everywhere - including the kitchen sink.

Open a window, hear the birds calling and join this warm and generous journey into the tangled bank.

'If, like me, you've got more *into nature* in the last few months, but sometimes feel a bit excluded by nature writing, then this book will make you feel included and welcomed.' Tracey Thorn

'A witty, touching and profound book about one man's burgeoning relationship with the natural world - and it's also a joy to read.' Stephen Moss

'Lev's endearing child-like joy at even the smallest of encounters is infectious.' BBC Wildlife Magazine

Sunday Times Bestseller and Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September)

Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings?

In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

A walk in the woods will never be the same again.

An exploration of the invisible connections sustaining the entire natural world from the bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees Did you know that trees can influence the rotation of the earth?Or that wolves can alter the course of a river?Or that earthworms control wild boar populations?The natural world is a web of intricate connections, many of which go unnoticed by humans. But it is these connections that maintain nature's finely balanced equilibrium. Drawing on the latest scientific discoveries and decades of experience as a forester, Peter Wohlleben shows us how different animals, plants, rivers, rocks and weather systems cooperate, and what's at stake when these delicate systems are unbalanced.

'Peter Wohlleben doesn't merely look, he sees. Let's all learn as much from him as we can, and quickly' Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows

Can horses feel shame? Do deer grieve? Why do roosters deceive hens? We tend to assume that we are the only living things able to experience feelings but have you ever wondered what's going on in an animal's head? From the leafy forest floor to the inside of a bee hive, The Inner Life of Animals opens up the animal kingdom like never before. We hear the stories of a grateful humpback whale, of a hedgehog who has nightmares, and of a magpie who commits adultery; we meet bees that plan for the future, pigs who learn their own names and crows that go tobogganing for fun. And at last we find out why wasps exist.

Image for H is for Hawk
Click to enlarge
H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald (Author)
Format:Paperback / softback 320 pages
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Imprint:Vintage
ISBN:9780099575450
Published:26 Feb 2015
Classifications:Wildlife: birds & birdwatching
Readership:General (US: Trade)
Weight:258g
Dimensions:196 x 129 x 21 (mm)
Pub. Country:United Kingdom
For sale in: United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, France, (See full list)
Description
Discover the number one bestselling phenomenon that is a powerful and profound mediation on grief expressed through the trials of training a goshawk. As a child, Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer, learning the arcane terminology and reading all the classic books. Years later, when her father died and she was struck deeply by grief, she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk.

She bought Mabel for GBP800 on a Scottish quayside and took her home to Cambridge, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals. H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. This is a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.

'This beautiful book is at once heartfelt and clever in the way it mixes elegy with celebration' Andrew Motion
'It just sings. I couldn't stop reading' Mark Haddon, bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Dazzling... Deeply affecting, utterly fascinating and blazing with love and intelligence' Financial Times

From the bestselling author of H is for Hawk comes Vesper Flights, a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world. Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best-loved writing along with new pieces covering a thrilling range of subjects.

There are essays here on headaches, on catching swans, on hunting mushrooms, on twentieth-century spies, on numinous experiences and high-rise buildings; on nests and wild pigs and the tribulations of farming ostriches. Vesper Flights is a book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make the world around us. Moving and frank, personal and political, it confirms Helen Macdonald as one of this century's greatest nature writers.

**CHOSEN AS A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK TO WATCH OUT FOR AND A NEW STATESMAN BOOK TO READ**

Isabella Tree tells the story of the 'Knepp experiment', a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope. Winner of the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Book Shop Literary Prize.

Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy clay of their land at Knepp was economically unsustainable, Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell made a spectacular leap of faith: they decided to step back and let nature take over. Thanks to the introduction of free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer - proxies of the large animals that once roamed Britain - the 3,500 acre project has seen extraordinary increases in wildlife numbers and diversity in little over a decade. Extremely rare species, including turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, lesser spotted woodpeckers and purple emperor butterflies, are now breeding at Knepp, and populations of other species are rocketing.

The Burrells' degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again, heaving with life - all by itself. Personal and inspirational, Wilding is an astonishing account of the beauty and strength of nature, when it is given as much freedom as possible. Highly Commended by the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize.

WINNER OF BOOK OF THE YEAR, NARRATIVE NON-FICTION BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2021Rediscover the natural world with the multi-award winning phenomenon and youngest ever major literary prize winner in UK history.

ALSO WINNER OF: THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2020, AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARD FOR NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2020, BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARDS FOR NON-FICTION 2020; SHORTLISTED FOR: WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 & LONGLISTED FOR: THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 ___________ 'This diary chronicles the turning of my world, from spring to winter, at home, in the wild, in my head.'Evocative, raw and lyrical, this startling debut explores the natural world through the eyes of Dara McAnulty, an autistic teenager coping with the uprooting of home, school, and his mental health, while pursuing his life as a conservationist and environmental activist. Shifting from intense darkness to light, recalling his sensory encounters in the wild - with blackbirds, whooper swans, red kites, hen harriers, frogs, dandelions, Irish hares and more - McAnulty reveals worlds we have neglected to see, in a stunning world of nature writing that is a future classic.

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, Longlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2018, A Guardian Book of the Year 2018.

The owl has captivated the human imagination for millennia; as a predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom or portent of doom. Owl Sense tells a new story. On 'owl walks' with her teenage son, Benji, Miriam Darlington begins a quest to identify every European species of this elusive bird.

From Britain she travels to Spain, France, Serbia and Finland, and to the frosted borders of the Arctic. Along the way, however, Benji succumbs to a mysterious and disabling illness, and Miriam's endeavour soon becomes entangled with the search for his cure. Bringing the strangeness and magnificence of owls to life, Owl Sense is a book about wildness in nature but also in the unpredictable course of our human lives.

Roger Deakin set out in 1996 to swim through the British Isles. The result a uniquely personal view of an island race and a people with a deep affinity for water. From the sea, from rock pools, from rivers and streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools and spas, from fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries, even canals, Deakin gains a fascinating perspective on modern Britain.

Detained by water bailiffs in Winchester, intercepted in the Fowey estuary by coastguards, mistaken for a suicude on Camber sands, confronting the Corryvreckan whirlpool in the Hebrides, he discovers just how much of an outsider the native swimmer is to his landlocked, fully-dressed fellow citizens. Encompassing cultural history, autobiography, travel writing and natural history, Waterlog is a personal journey, a bold assertion of the native swimmer's right to roam, and an unforgettable celebration of the magic of water.

rom the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, he embarks upon a quest that takes him through Britain, across Europe, to Central Asia and Australia, in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with wood and trees. Meeting woodlanders of all kinds, he lives in shacks and cabins, travels in search of the wild apple groves of Kazakhstan, goes coppicing in Suffolk, swims beneath the walnut trees of the Haut-Languedoc, and hunts bush plums with Aboriginal women in the outback.

Perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Colin Tudge, Roger Deakin's unmatched exploration of our relationship with trees is autobiography, history, traveller's tale and incisive work in natural history. It will take you into the heart of the woods, where we go 'to grow, learn and change.

As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, it was barely recognisable.

The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song. English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost.

And yet 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.

'A heartfelt book and one that dares to hope' Alan Bennett
'I was thrilled by it' Philip Pullman

Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize | Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize | Shortlisted for Fortnum & Mason Food Book Award | Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize | Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize

A Short History of the World in 50 Animals provides a new perspective on the grand sweep of our planet's making, taking readers from the time of the dinosaurs to the time of Dolly, the first cloned mammal. This book will include a great variety of beasts from across the animal kingdom, some well known and others far more surprising, from every continent in the world. Each entry will show the creature's influence on world development, economy, health, culture, religion and society.

The size of the animals range from hulking elephants to tiny bees but each one has made a significant impact on history. A Short History of the World in 50 Animals details the impact, legacy and role of fifty animals that determined the world's history and shows how many of them are essential for our future survival. Featuring charming black and white illustrations throughout, which celebrate these extraordinary animals.

In the same series: A Short History of the World in 50 Places.

n Salt On Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie explores what the sea means to us, and particularly what it has meant to women through the ages. In mesmerising prose, she explores how the sea has inspired, fascinated and terrified us, and how she herself fell in love with the deep blue. This book is a walk on the beach with Turner, with Shakespeare, with the Romantic Poets and shanty-singers.

It's an ode to our oceans - to the sailors who brave their treacherous waters, to the women who lost their loved ones to the waves, to the creatures that dwell in their depths, to beachcombers, swimmers, seabirds and mermaids. Navigating through ancient Greek myths, poetry, shipwrecks and Scottish folktales, Salt On Your Tongue is about how the wild untameable waves can help us understand what it means to be human.

*Shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2019**The astonishing new work of non-fiction from the prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing.

Under the Rock is about badgers, balsam, history, nettles, mythology, moorlands, mosses, poetry, bats, wild swimming, slugs, recession, floods, logging, peacocks, community, apples, asbestos, quarries, geology, industrial music, owls, stone walls, farming, anxiety, relocation, the North, woodpiles, folklore, landslides, ruins, terriers, woodlands, ravens, dales, valleys, walking, animal skulls, trespassing, crows, factories, maps, rain - lots of rain - and a great big rock.

Folk Tales and lore are woven into the ancient landscape of Devon: swimming in the rivers, soaring with the buzzards over farms and moors and making soft tracks across the sands of a wild coastline. In Devon Folk Tales for Children you'll find goblins tinkering in the old ore mines, a changeling hare-woman who runs by the light of the moon, and pixies playing on the old pack routes trodden by the hooves of Dartmoor ponies. This beautifully illustrated collection of tales from storyteller and artist Leonie Jane-Grey will take you on a wild and magical adventure through the ancient lands of Devon.

From crowded train stations to quiet woods and from city centres to our own back gardens, birds remind us that nature is everywhere. But do you know which is the king of the birds? Has anyone ever told you how the brave swallow got its forked tail? And what of the owl, who was really a baker's daughter? Take a look inside The Magpie's Nest, where a hoard of stories, riddles and rhymes is waiting for you. Suitable for all ages and charmingly illustrated by Lakeland artist Becca Hall, this is an essential collection of stories for all who love the natural world.

Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2017As one of the largest predators left in Britain, the fox is captivating: a comfortably familiar figure in our country landscapes; an intriguing flash of bright-eyed wildness in our towns. Yet no other animal attracts such controversy, has provoked more column inches or been so ambiguously woven into our culture over centuries, perceived variously as a beautiful animal, a cunning rogue, a vicious pest and a worthy foe. As well as being the most ubiquitous of wild animals, it is also the least understood.

In Foxes Unearthed Lucy Jones investigates the truth about foxes in a media landscape that often carries complex agendas. Delving into fact, fiction, folklore and her own family history, Lucy travels the length of Britain to find out first-hand why these animals incite such passionate emotions, revealing our rich and complex relationship with one of our most loved - and most vilified - wild animals. This compelling narrative adds much-needed depth to the debate on foxes, asking what our attitudes towards the red fox say about us and, ultimately, about our relationship with the natural world.

BBC R4 Book of the Week

What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter? In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself - a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind's fitful development from unruly clumps of seaborne cells to the first evolved nervous systems in ancient relatives of jellyfish, he explores the incredible evolutionary journey of the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous molluscs who would later abandon their shells to rise above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so - a journey completely independent from the route that mammals and birds would later take.

But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually 'think for themselves'? By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind - and on our own.

A SUNDAY TIMES NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR*UPDATED EDITION FEATURING EXTRA MATERIAL

*A nature diary by award-winning novelist, nature writer and hit podcaster Melissa Harrison, following her journey from urban south London to the rural Suffolk countryside.

'A writer of great gifts.' Robert Macfarlane
'The journal of a writer to compare to Thomas Hardy. Melissa Harrison is among our most celebrated nature writers.' John Carey, The Times

A Londoner for over twenty years, moving from flat to Tube to air-conditioned office, Melissa Harrison knew what it was to be insulated from the seasons.

Adopting a dog and going on daily walks helped reconnect her with the cycle of the year and the quiet richness of nature all around her: swifts nesting in a nearby church; ivy-leaved toadflax growing out of brick walls; the first blackbird's song; an exhilarating glimpse of a hobby over Tooting Common. Moving from scrappy city verges to ancient, rural Suffolk, where Harrison eventually relocates, this diary - compiled from her beloved Nature Notebook column in The Times - maps her joyful engagement with the natural world and demonstrates how we must first learn to see, and then act to preserve, the beauty we have on our doorsteps - no matter where we live. A perceptive and powerful call-to-arms written in mesmerising prose, The Stubborn Light of Things confirms Harrison as a central voice in British nature writing.

'Captivating. Will change the way you think about the natural world, and your place in it' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

In Feral, George Monbiot, one of the world's most celebrated radical thinkers offers a riveting tale of possibility and travel in the wild. How many of us sometimes feel that we are scratching at the walls of this life, seeking to find our way into a wider space beyond? That our mild, polite existence sometimes seems to crush the breath out of us? Feral is the lyrical and gripping story of George Monbiot's efforts to re-engage with nature and discover a new way of living. He shows how, by restoring and rewilding our damaged ecosystems on land and at sea, we can bring wonder back into our lives.

Making use of some remarkable scientific discoveries, Feral lays out a new, positive environmentalism, in which nature is allowed to find its own way.

Can you tell which plants are safe to eat?Which trees are best to shelter under a storm?How do you tell a deciduous and coniferous tree apart?In his charming new book, bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben takes you on a journey of discovery. From learning what creatures lurk beneath tree roots to finding your way around the woods without a compass, this is a captivating guide to navigating the wonders of the wild.

Over the course of a year, Miriam Darlington travelled around Britain in search of wild otters; from her home in Devon to the wilds of Scotland; to Cumbria, Wales, Northumberland, Cornwall, Somerset and the River Lea; to her childhood home near the Ouse, the source of her watery obsession. Otter Country follows Darlington's search through different landscapes, seasons, weather and light, as she tracks one of Britain's most elusive animals. During her journey, she meets otter experts, representatives of the Environment Agency, conservationists, ecologists, walkers, Henry Williamson's family, Gavin Maxwell's heir; zoo keepers, fishermen, scientists, hunters and poets.

Above all she learns how to track and be around otters, and that the stillness required to actually see this shy animal can bring many unasked-for wonders. Written in mesmerising prose, Otter Country establishes Darlington as a prominent voice in the new generation of British nature writers.

The Art of Mindful Gardening explores how mindfulness can bring a new dimension to gardening. Ark Redwood guides you through the changing seasons, expanding your knowledge of how to be conscious of the present and providing expert insights on meditating into your natural environment.

Strangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) `killer plant' in fiction, film and video games. Step within to marvel at Charlotte Perkins Gilman's giant wistaria and H. G. Wells' hungry orchid; hear the calls of the ethereal women of the wood, and the frightful drone of the moaning lily; and do tread carefully around E. Nesbit's wandering creepers... Every strain of vegetable threat (and one deadly fungus) can be found within this new collection, representing the very best tales from the undergrowth of Gothic fiction

A mariner inherits a skull that screams incessantly along with the roar of the sea; a phantom hare stalks the moors to deliver justice for a crime long dead; a man witnesses a murder in the woods near St. Ives, only to wonder whether it was he himself who committed the crime. Offering a bounty of lost or forgotten strange and Gothic tales set in Cornwall, Cornish Horrors explores the rich folklore and traditions of the region in a journey through mines, local mythology, shipwrecks, seascapes, and the coming of the railway and tourism.

With stories by Gothic luminaries such as Bram Stoker and Edgar Allan Poe, this new collection also features chilling yarns of the haunted peninsula from a host of underappreciated writers from the past two centuries

Woods play an important and recurring role in horror, fantasy, the gothic and the weird. They are places in which strange things happen, where you often can't see where you are or what is around you. Supernatural creatures thrive in the thickets.

Trees reach into underworlds of earth, myth and magic. Forests are full of ghosts. In this new collection, immerse yourself in the whispering voices between the branches in Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor, witness an inexplicable death in Yorkshire's Strid Wood and prepare yourself for an encounter with malignant pagan powers in the dark of the New Forest.

This edition also includes notes on the real locations and folklore which inspired these deliciously sinister stories.

Worried about a big meeting? Can't sleep? Low on energy? Discover the powerful herbs and flowers that can help you to live your best life. Learn which herbs and flowers will aid calm, happiness, boost energy and how you can work simple natural remedies into your daily routine. This is a down-to-earth, expert introduction to the life-changing powers of nature's potent remedies from forager, herbalist and wild plant medicine teacher Brigit Anna McNeill.

The islands of Britain and Ireland hold a rich heritage of plant folklore and wisdom, from the magical yew tree to the bad-tempered dandelion. Here are traditional tales about the trees and plants that shape our landscapes and our lives through the seasons. They explore the complex relationship between people and plants, in lowlands and uplands, fields, bogs, moors, woodlands and towns.

Suitable for all ages, this is an essential collection of stories for anyone interested in botany, the environment and our living heritage.

Once upon a time, most of Britain and Ireland was covered in woodland. Many of the trees have been cleared, but our connection with the wildwood remains. It is a place of danger, adventure and transformation, where anything could happen.

Here is a collection of traditional folk tales of oak, ash and thorn; of hunting forests and rebellion, timber and triumph in battle, wild ghosts and woodwoses. Lisa Schneidau retells some of the old stories and relates them to the trees and forests in the landscape of our islands today.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING

Lev Parikian is on a joyful journey to discover the quirks, habits and wonders of how we experience nature. ___It's often said that we're a nation of nature lovers, but what does that really mean? Lev Parikian sets out to explore the many ways that he, and we, experience the natural world - from pavement to garden and from wildlife reserve to far-flung island. He visits the haunts of famous nature lovers to examine their insatiable curiosity; meets ramblers, birders and den-builders; and gets up close and personal with the nature he finds everywhere - including the kitchen sink.

Open a window, hear the birds calling and join this warm and generous journey into the tangled bank.

'If, like me, you've got more *into nature* in the last few months, but sometimes feel a bit excluded by nature writing, then this book will make you feel included and welcomed.' Tracey Thorn

'A witty, touching and profound book about one man's burgeoning relationship with the natural world - and it's also a joy to read.' Stephen Moss

'Lev's endearing child-like joy at even the smallest of encounters is infectious.' BBC Wildlife Magazine

Sunday Times Bestseller and Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September)

Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings?

In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

A walk in the woods will never be the same again.

An exploration of the invisible connections sustaining the entire natural world from the bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees Did you know that trees can influence the rotation of the earth?Or that wolves can alter the course of a river?Or that earthworms control wild boar populations?The natural world is a web of intricate connections, many of which go unnoticed by humans. But it is these connections that maintain nature's finely balanced equilibrium. Drawing on the latest scientific discoveries and decades of experience as a forester, Peter Wohlleben shows us how different animals, plants, rivers, rocks and weather systems cooperate, and what's at stake when these delicate systems are unbalanced.

'Peter Wohlleben doesn't merely look, he sees. Let's all learn as much from him as we can, and quickly' Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows

From the bestselling author of H is for Hawk comes Vesper Flights, a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world. Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best-loved writing along with new pieces covering a thrilling range of subjects.

There are essays here on headaches, on catching swans, on hunting mushrooms, on twentieth-century spies, on numinous experiences and high-rise buildings; on nests and wild pigs and the tribulations of farming ostriches. Vesper Flights is a book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make the world around us. Moving and frank, personal and political, it confirms Helen Macdonald as one of this century's greatest nature writers.

**CHOSEN AS A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK TO WATCH OUT FOR AND A NEW STATESMAN BOOK TO READ**

Isabella Tree tells the story of the 'Knepp experiment', a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope. Winner of the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Book Shop Literary Prize.

Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy clay of their land at Knepp was economically unsustainable, Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell made a spectacular leap of faith: they decided to step back and let nature take over. Thanks to the introduction of free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer - proxies of the large animals that once roamed Britain - the 3,500 acre project has seen extraordinary increases in wildlife numbers and diversity in little over a decade. Extremely rare species, including turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, lesser spotted woodpeckers and purple emperor butterflies, are now breeding at Knepp, and populations of other species are rocketing.

The Burrells' degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again, heaving with life - all by itself. Personal and inspirational, Wilding is an astonishing account of the beauty and strength of nature, when it is given as much freedom as possible. Highly Commended by the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize.

WINNER OF BOOK OF THE YEAR, NARRATIVE NON-FICTION BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2021Rediscover the natural world with the multi-award winning phenomenon and youngest ever major literary prize winner in UK history.

ALSO WINNER OF: THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2020, AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARD FOR NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2020, BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARDS FOR NON-FICTION 2020; SHORTLISTED FOR: WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 & LONGLISTED FOR: THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 ___________ 'This diary chronicles the turning of my world, from spring to winter, at home, in the wild, in my head.'Evocative, raw and lyrical, this startling debut explores the natural world through the eyes of Dara McAnulty, an autistic teenager coping with the uprooting of home, school, and his mental health, while pursuing his life as a conservationist and environmental activist. Shifting from intense darkness to light, recalling his sensory encounters in the wild - with blackbirds, whooper swans, red kites, hen harriers, frogs, dandelions, Irish hares and more - McAnulty reveals worlds we have neglected to see, in a stunning world of nature writing that is a future classic.

As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, it was barely recognisable.

The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song. English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost.

And yet 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.

'A heartfelt book and one that dares to hope' Alan Bennett
'I was thrilled by it' Philip Pullman

Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize | Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize | Shortlisted for Fortnum & Mason Food Book Award | Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize | Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize

*Shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2019**The astonishing new work of non-fiction from the prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing.

Under the Rock is about badgers, balsam, history, nettles, mythology, moorlands, mosses, poetry, bats, wild swimming, slugs, recession, floods, logging, peacocks, community, apples, asbestos, quarries, geology, industrial music, owls, stone walls, farming, anxiety, relocation, the North, woodpiles, folklore, landslides, ruins, terriers, woodlands, ravens, dales, valleys, walking, animal skulls, trespassing, crows, factories, maps, rain - lots of rain - and a great big rock.

Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.

Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Connect to the magic of the world around you for healing, empowerment and self-careNature is filled with hidden, elusive energies: the growth spirals of sunflowers, the electromagnetic spectrum of rainbows, the bio-energy of trees and the sound waves of thunder. Working with the potent energy of nature's bounty, you will learn to nurture and embrace your inner guardian witch through spell work. Brimming with rituals, wishes and enchantments to encourage spiritual growth, abundance and prosperity, and featuring beautiful illustrations from the author, this book is an illuminating guide to harnessing the earth's power for personal reflection.

It reveals how magic can be used as a reciprocal force for good that protects and promotes our well-being, as well as that of our planet. The Little Book of Earth Magic is for those who seek to form a meaningful connection with nature and take their spiritual practice to a new level.

A SUNDAY TIMES NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR*UPDATED EDITION FEATURING EXTRA MATERIAL

*A nature diary by award-winning novelist, nature writer and hit podcaster Melissa Harrison, following her journey from urban south London to the rural Suffolk countryside.

'A writer of great gifts.' Robert Macfarlane
'The journal of a writer to compare to Thomas Hardy. Melissa Harrison is among our most celebrated nature writers.' John Carey, The Times

A Londoner for over twenty years, moving from flat to Tube to air-conditioned office, Melissa Harrison knew what it was to be insulated from the seasons.

Adopting a dog and going on daily walks helped reconnect her with the cycle of the year and the quiet richness of nature all around her: swifts nesting in a nearby church; ivy-leaved toadflax growing out of brick walls; the first blackbird's song; an exhilarating glimpse of a hobby over Tooting Common. Moving from scrappy city verges to ancient, rural Suffolk, where Harrison eventually relocates, this diary - compiled from her beloved Nature Notebook column in The Times - maps her joyful engagement with the natural world and demonstrates how we must first learn to see, and then act to preserve, the beauty we have on our doorsteps - no matter where we live. A perceptive and powerful call-to-arms written in mesmerising prose, The Stubborn Light of Things confirms Harrison as a central voice in British nature writing.

THE MILLION-COPY GLOBAL BESTSELLER and WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION'

It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it' Barack Obama
'Really, just one of the best novels, period' Ann Patchett

A wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe. The perfect literary escape.

An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. An Air Force crewmember in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan.

This is the story of these and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe. 'It's not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book' Margaret Atwood'Radical and exciting' Jessie Burton'Breathtaking' Barbara Kingsolver

Other Formats

Winner of the 2021 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation.

The smash-hit Sunday Times bestseller that will transform your understanding of our planet and life itself. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. They can change our minds, heal our bodies and even help us avoid environmental disaster; they are metabolic masters, earth-makers and key players in most of nature's processes.

In Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake takes us on a mind-altering journey into their spectacular world, and reveals how these extraordinary organisms transform our understanding of our planet and life itself.

'Gorgeous!' Margaret Atwood (on Twitter)'Reads like an adventure story...
'Urgent, astounding and necessary' Helen Macdonald'
A magical writer' Russell Brand*

Plants have profoundly moulded the Earth's climate and the evolutionary trajectory of life. Far from being 'silent witnesses to the passage of time', plants are dynamic components of our world, shaping the environment throughout history as much as that environment has shaped them. In The Emerald Planet, David Beerling puts plants centre stage, revealing the crucial role they have played in driving global changes in the environment, in recording hidden facets of Earth's history, and in helping us to predict its future.

His account draws together evidence from fossil plants, from experiments with their living counterparts, and from computer models of the 'Earth System', to illuminate the history of our planet and its biodiversity. This new approach reveals howplummeting carbon dioxide levels removed a barrier to the evolution of the leaf; how plants played a starring role in pushing oxygen levels upwards, allowing spectacular giant insects to thrive in the Carboniferous; and it strengthens fascinating and contentious fossil evidence for an ancient hole in the ozonelayer. Along the way, Beerling introduces a lively cast of pioneering scientists from Victorian times onwards whose discoveries provided the crucial background to these and the other puzzles.

This understanding of our planet's past sheds a sobering light on our own climate-changing activities, and offers clues to what our climatic and ecological futures might look like. There could be no more important time to take a close look at plants, and to understand the history of the world through the stories they tell. Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think.

Can you tell which plants are safe to eat?Which trees are best to shelter under a storm?How do you tell a deciduous and coniferous tree apart?In his charming new book, bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben takes you on a journey of discovery. From learning what creatures lurk beneath tree roots to finding your way around the woods without a compass, this is a captivating guide to navigating the wonders of the wild.

Trees are our constant companions. They stand tall above us, shading us from the sun. They breathe in and out, feeding us oxygen.

They weather the storms, protecting us from danger. As children we intuitively understand the impact trees have on our lives. We sit beneath their branches, we collect their fallen leaves, we hug their trunks in thanks.

But in the process of growing up, we forget these gentle giants. We move to cities, we commute through concrete jungles and we switch off from nature. Opera singer and forester Vincent Karche knows the impact of disconnecting all too well.

After years away from his forestry roots, and under the stress of an international singing career, burnout took its toll and he lost his voice. Vincent's healing journey took him to the forests of northern Canada, where he reconnected with trees and recovered not just his voice, but his joy for life. In Tree Wisdom, Vincent teaches us what a year of healing among the trees can look like.

Each lesson mirrors the wonderous way our tall timber friends have learned to thrive through the seasons. Each lesson is simple in nature, a push of the pause button, a chance to re-centre on what matters. If you can hear the call of nature, willing you back to a simpler time, this book will show you the way.

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction and A New York Times Notable Book of 2018. Our understanding of the 'tree of life', with powerful implications for human genetics, human health and our own human nature, has recently completely changed. This book is about a new method of telling the story of life on earth - through molecular phylogenetics.

It involves a fairly simple method - the reading of the deep history of life by looking at the variation in protein molecules found in living organisms. For instance, we now know that roughly eight per cent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection. In The Tangled Tree, acclaimed science writer David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them - such as Carl Woese, the most important little-known biologist of the twentieth century; Lynn Margulis, the notorious maverick whose wild ideas about 'mosaic' creatures proved to be true; and Tsutomu Wantanabe, who discovered that the scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a direct result of horizontal gene transfer, bringing the deep study of genome histories to bear on a global crisis in public health.

Quammen explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life - including where we humans fit into it. Thanks to new technologies, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition - through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing. The Tangled Tree is a brilliant exploration of our transformed understanding of evolution and of life's history itself.

The original biodynamic sowing and planting calendar celebrates its 60th anniversary with a new, easy-to-view layout featuring more detailed planting, tending and harvesting information to help growers maximise the yield and vitality of crops and plants. Trusted by generations of farmers and gardeners, the refreshed design marks a new era for the ultimate biodynamic calendar. The new-look calendar features:-- A clearer, easy-to-view layout making it simpler to plan what to do and when-- More space dedicated to detailed explanations of the recommended activities-- New information panels make it easier to use-- Clearer headings and sections for faster look-ups-- More detailed planting, tending and harvesting information to maximise the yield and vitality of crops and plants-- Redesigned to work for both seasoned biodynamic farmers and beginner gardeners-- Solar and lunar events, plus information on planetary aspects, are given dedicated space A new, refreshed design of the trusted sowing and planting calendar for both seasoned growers and beginners.

The Art of Mindful Gardening explores how mindfulness can bring a new dimension to gardening. Ark Redwood guides you through the changing seasons, expanding your knowledge of how to be conscious of the present and providing expert insights on meditating into your natural environment.

The islands of Britain and Ireland hold a rich heritage of plant folklore and wisdom, from the magical yew tree to the bad-tempered dandelion. Here are traditional tales about the trees and plants that shape our landscapes and our lives through the seasons. They explore the complex relationship between people and plants, in lowlands and uplands, fields, bogs, moors, woodlands and towns.

Suitable for all ages, this is an essential collection of stories for anyone interested in botany, the environment and our living heritage.

A SUNDAY TIMES NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR*UPDATED EDITION FEATURING EXTRA MATERIAL

*A nature diary by award-winning novelist, nature writer and hit podcaster Melissa Harrison, following her journey from urban south London to the rural Suffolk countryside.

'A writer of great gifts.' Robert Macfarlane
'The journal of a writer to compare to Thomas Hardy. Melissa Harrison is among our most celebrated nature writers.' John Carey, The Times

A Londoner for over twenty years, moving from flat to Tube to air-conditioned office, Melissa Harrison knew what it was to be insulated from the seasons.

Adopting a dog and going on daily walks helped reconnect her with the cycle of the year and the quiet richness of nature all around her: swifts nesting in a nearby church; ivy-leaved toadflax growing out of brick walls; the first blackbird's song; an exhilarating glimpse of a hobby over Tooting Common. Moving from scrappy city verges to ancient, rural Suffolk, where Harrison eventually relocates, this diary - compiled from her beloved Nature Notebook column in The Times - maps her joyful engagement with the natural world and demonstrates how we must first learn to see, and then act to preserve, the beauty we have on our doorsteps - no matter where we live. A perceptive and powerful call-to-arms written in mesmerising prose, The Stubborn Light of Things confirms Harrison as a central voice in British nature writing.

A bold new history of how botany and global plant collecting - centred at Kew Gardens and driven by Joseph Banks - transformed the earth.

Botany was the darling and the powerhouse of the eighteenth century. As European ships ventured across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, discovery bloomed. Bounties of new plants were brought back, and their arrival meant much more than improved flowerbeds - it offered a new scientific frontier that would transform Europe's industry, medicine, eating and drinking habits, and even fashion.

Joseph Banks was the dynamo for this momentous change. As botanist for James Cook's great voyage to the South Pacific on the Endeavour, Banks collected plants on a vast scale, armed with the vision - as a child of the Enlightenment - that to travel physically was to advance intellectually. His thinking was as intrepid as Cook's seafaring: he commissioned radically influential and physically daring expeditions such as those of Francis Masson to the Cape Colony, George Staunton to China, George Caley to Australia, William Bligh to Tahiti and Jamaica, among many others.

Jordan Goodman's epic history follows these high seas adventurers and their influence in Europe, as well as taking us back to the early years of Kew Gardens, which Banks developed devotedly across the course of his life, transforming it into one of the world's largest and most diverse botanical gardens. In a rip-roaring global expedition, based on original sources in many languages, Goodman gives a momentous history of how the discoveries made by Banks and his collectors advanced scientific understanding around the world.

"In The Art of Mindful Birdwatching, Claire Thompson elegantly weaves a narrative full of her own delightfully documented encounters with birds in amongst sage guidance on using mindfulness to help readers become deeply aware of the present moment. Following Claire's clearly described exercises has the potential to lead one from mere identification to making deeply insightful observations into the life of birds." - British Trust of Ornithology

Through personal anecdote and expert insight, Claire Thompson of BirdLife International invites us on a mindful journey through gardens, cities, open country, forests, coasts and mountains to enjoy and learn from the magnificent beauty and diversity of the avian world. Who has never gazed enviously at a bird soaring through the sky? Or delighted in the uplifting tunes of nature's songsters? Birds can do wonders for our hearts and minds - if we simply pay them attention.

With The Art of Mindful Birdwatching, Claire Thompson reveals how the practice of mindfulness enriches our birdwatching experiences - and explores how birds are, in turn, the ideal inspiration for the practice of mindfulness. Enjoy the magnificent diversity of colours, songs, flight patterns and behaviours displayed by birds while reaping the benefits of mindfulness: Increased concentration, Increased creativity, Increased vitality, Reduced stress and anxiety, Better overall physical and emotional well-being, Better sleep Bird flight is a symbol of freedom to soar through life without constraint, and mindfulness similarly enables us to invite freedom and happiness into our own lives. Find even more ways to practice mindfulness with the

Mindfulness series: Mindfulness in Sound, Mindfulness & the Art of Drawing, Mindfulness in Knitting, Mindfulness & the Journey of Bereavement, Mindfulness of Work, Art of Mindful Singing, Art of Mindful Crafting, Mindfulness and Compassion, Mindfulness for Black Dogs & Blue Days, Mindfulness for Unraveling Anxiety, Practice of Mindful Yoga, The Mindful Man, Mindfulness and the Natural World and more.

A fascinating look at the myths, folklore and botany behind over 70 British wildflowers. From hedgerows to meadows, wildflowers can be found throughout our green and pleasant land. In this book, journalist and garden writer Rosamond Richardson traces the history and myths behind each flower to discover the fascinating ways in which the plants were used.

Discover which flower used as a medieval lie-detector to test the innocence of suspected criminals, or stuffed in the shoes of Roman centurions to prevent damage to their feet as they marched. From periwinkles, beloved of Chaucer, and the oxlips and 'nodding violet' growing in the forest of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the book celebrates the important role wildflowers have played in literature, as well as their uses in food and medicine, and the history, myths and tales behind each species. The nineteenth-century poet John Clare wrote, 'I love wildflowers (none are weeds with me)'.

This book is a celebration of the bountiful history behind Britain's beloved wildflowers and is perfect for anyone with an interest in gardening, history or the natural world.

This lovely book will enable the reader to identify Britain's trees and enjoy reading the rich folklore and traditions connected with them. From hawthorn to holly, from beech to blackthorn, each of Britain's 40 or so native trees are illustrated and a text weaves together the fascinating natural history, folklore, traditions, and remedies connected with them. The stories of some of Britain's oldest and most beloved trees, some dating back thousands of years, are included too.

As well as a fascinating book to dip into, the illustrations mean it also functions as a handy identification guide.

The garden is an oasis, a pocket of nature in our busy modern lives, full of plants, animals, insects - and a fair bit of magic. Folk Tales from the Garden follows the seasons through a year of stories, garden lore and legends. Explore the changing face of nature just outside your front door, from the tale of the Creator painting her birds and the merits of kissing an old toad, to pixies sleeping in the tulips, and an unusually large turnip.

Witch's Garden describes over 50 of the world's most powerful magical plants and their uses, mythical and proven. Wise women, apothecaries, witches, herbalists: whatever you call them, those who cultivate plants for their fabled mystical and healing properties have existed for thousands of years. From the screaming mandrake to calming St John's Wort, the history of esoteric species is often as dark and elusive as the art of herbalism itself.

Including tales of remedies for everything from bad weather and broken hearts to protection from evil and the invocation of immortality, Witch's Garden features exquisite botanical illustrations and fascinating specimens held within the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while archival images depicting occult practices evoke the bewitching nature of these mysterious species.

Learn to forage in the hedgerows like the herbalists of the past with this best-selling beginner's guide. For centuries our ancestors looked to nature not just for food, but also for healing. To this day, our ancient hedgerows, woodlands and forests are still full of remedies - and they're waiting to be discovered.

This is the essential guide to enjoying the bountiful delights of the natural world. Learn how to make delicious preserves, healing balms, soothing toddies and cures for colds with nature's jewels such as rose hips, elderberries and mugwort. You will also find:Photographs to help you safely identify edible plantsAdvice on what is available in each seasonGuidance on how best to prepare and preserve your findsThe fascinating folklore and history of foragingEvery walk is an opportunity to learn, identify a new plant, gather something to eat and reconnect with nature - so dive in to begin your foraging adventure.

RHS Weeds gathers together 50 untamed and beautifully wild plant species, illustrated with exquisite botanical images. These subversive species no longer need to be seen as 'plants out of place'. In the modern garden, where harmony with nature and the ability to thrive under challenging conditions are key, weeds are finally getting their moment in the sun.

RHS Weeds highlights the delicate charms of some of the most fascinating vagabond plants around. Beautiful botanical illustrations, including many from the Royal Horticultural Society's collections, and captivating profiles by RHS author Gareth Richards, provide key information for the modern gardener on the characteristics, usefulness and cultivation of these unsung heroes of the plant world.

From the best-selling author of The Hedgerow ApothecaryLearn how to make the most of your common garden plants like the herbalists of the pastUnlock the sustainable and ethical art of the apothecarist, and explore its rich folklore and history. Discover the hidden delights in your own garden and how to use them to make delicious edible treats, herbal cures and restorative beauty products. With photographs to help you safely identify edible plants and tips on how best to prepare and preserve your finds, this is the essential guide to enjoying the home-grown riches of your garden.

Enjoy the therapeutic delights of the plants to be found in your own garden with easy-to-follow recipes. Heal dry hands with calendula balm. Encourage restful sleep with cherry moon milk. Get creative with a vivid blue ink made from cornflowers. Try a borage infusion for tired eyes. Soothe itchy skin with herbal bath tea. Bake a delicious nettle and lemon sponge cake. Freshen up with a rosemary mouthwash. Enjoy a cool glass of red clover lemonade. And much more!

The Secrets to Healing, Resilience and Immunity With the Most Powerful Natural Medicine in HistoryFrom the bestselling author of Keto DietLong before the first pharmaceutical companies opened their doors in the 1850s, doctors treated people, not symptoms. And although we've become used to popping pills, patients have finally had it with the dangerous side effects, addiction and over-prescribing - and they're desperate for an alternative. Here's the good news: that alternative has been here all along in the form of ancient treatments used for eons in traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic and Greek medicine.

Ancient Remedies for Modern Life is the first comprehensive layman's guide that will bring together and explain to the masses the very best of these time-tested practices. Bestselling author Dr. Axe explores the foundational concepts of ancient healing - eating right for your type and living in sync with your circadian clock.

Readers will learn how traditional practitioners identified the root cause of each patient's illness, then treated it with medicinal herbs, mushrooms, CBD, essential oils and restorative mind-body practices. What's more, they'll discover how they can use these ancient treatments themselves to cope with dozens of diseases, from ADHD to diabetes, hypothyroidism, autoimmune disease and beyond. Through engaging language and accessible explanations, Ancient Remedies for Modern Life offers readers everything they need to know about getting, and staying, healthy - without toxic, costly synthetic drugs.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2021*

Any garden belongs to everyone who sees it - it is like a book and everybody who visits it will find different things. Marc Hamer has designed and nurtured 12 acres of garden for over two decades. It is rarely visited so he is the only person who fully knows its secrets; but it is not his own.

His relationship with the garden's owner is both distant and curiously intimate, steeped in the mysterious connection which exists between two people who inhabit the same space in very different ways. In this life-enhancing book Marc takes us month-by-month through his experiences both working in the garden and outside it, as the seasons' changes bring new plants and wildlife to the fore and lead him to reflect on his past and future. Through his peaceful and meditative prose we learn about gardening folklore and wisdom, the joys of manual labour, his path from solitary homelessness to family contentment and the cycle of growth and decay that runs through both the garden's life and our own.

Beautifully illustrated, Seed to Dust is a moving and restorative account of a life lived in harmony with nature. You've seen gates like that at the side of the road, you've wondered what's behind them. They really are the entrance to the wonders you imagined.

An essential guide to every species of tree found in the British Isles outside of arboretums This easy-to-use guide covers the 360 species of tree that are found in Britain & Ireland. Each species is covered in detail with information on how to identify, whether from a leaf, twig, bark or whole tree, plus extra information on where the tree grows (including a map), how high they grow, what uses the tree is used for and its unique history. Every species is also comprehensively illustrated with photographs of every useful feature - bark, leaf, seed, flower, twig and whole tree.

Sample identification section:Silver Birch Betula pendula (Betulaceae) height to 26mA slender, fast-growing deciduous tree with a narrow, tapering crown when young and growing vigorously. Older trees acquire a weeping habit, especially if growing in an open, uncrowded situation.

Achieve a luscious garden all year round with this best-selling, easy-to-follow guide for novice gardeners from BBC Gardener's World writer Ian Spence. Find out when the best time is for pruning rose bushes, when your potatoes will be ready to harvest, how to keep your lawn green and well-fed, and learn how to plan ahead with this comprehensive gardening book. Keep on top of garden tasks with month-by-month chapters, "Last Chance" reminders, "Get Ahead" tips, and handy to-do lists.

This RHS book will make gardening easier by providing helpful guidelines and realistic advice, so you can plan out your time efficiently and effectively. Packed with beautiful photo galleries that showcase each month's "Star Plant", you'll be inspired to have your own garden blooming throughout the year! Explore more than 350 different varieties in the A-Z illustrated plant directory. Discover top tips to guide you with clear, easy-to-follow gardening advice and illustrated step-by-step projects and gardening ideas.

This fully updated edition includes brand-new visual galleries that showcase a garden throughout the year, with inspirational ideas for achieving colour schemes, your favourite scent, or striking foliage in your garden. Discover How to Keep Your Garden Beautiful from January to DecemberWhatever your level of skills in the garden, expert advice from the well-known gardener, Ian Spence, will help you keep your garden thriving all year round. RHS Gardening Through The Year is a must-have for anyone who has a green thumb! Inside the pages of this easy-to-follow gardening guide, you'll find:- Essential gardening advice.

- Month-by-month chapters and handy to-do lists so you can keep on top of your garden tasks. - Photo galleries that showcase each month's best plants and flowers. - Illustrated plant directory with over 350 different varieties for you to explore.

Whether you're looking to refresh your garden or you're thinking about getting an allotment, RHS Gardening Through The Year is the ideal gardening gift that you and your friends will return to time and time again for seasonal garden inspiration and advice. Happy gardening!

The beauty and power of the world's trees is timeless. Our appreciation of one of the oldest forms of life is particularly relevant in our age of climate concern. Immerse yourself in the world of trees with a tree a day - illuminating tree folklore, botany, tree uses, beauty and history.

From the strength of Alder trees (they can become as strong as stone, when old, and the cities of Amsterdam and Venice are held up by Alder pillars) to the biology behind the autumn colours of New England. From folkloric medicines in tree sap to villagers dancing inside a huge oak tree, From Shakespeare's Birnam Wood to eating Eucalyptus leaves. This book is a wonder for all nature lovers and tree enthusiasts who can dip into a fascinating and beautiful book with a tree every day.

Forest bathing from your bed, you will know more about tree biology, folklore, history and geography than ever before. Author Amy Jane Beer, a nature writer for The Guardian, provides botany, poetry, folklore and history in a variety of trees, from Gingkos to Birnam Oaks. From rubber trees in Asia to the giant sequoias of California, Klimt's Birch trees to Australia's Eucalyptus.

Learn how leaf veins work, the Sacred power of the Bo Tree in Sri Lanka, and reading tree rings. All wonderfully illustrated with award-winning photography, art, and illustration.

Millions of people are interested in natural and holistic health, yet many are missing out on the key ingredient: Nature itself! Rekindle your connection with the earth as you craft your own herbal medicine with 75 delicious recipes and powerful healing remedies. Herbalists Rosalee de la Foret and Emily Han expertly guide you through the benefits of two dozen of the most important and commonly found wild plants-many of which you can easily grow in your own garden, if foraging isn't right for you. Detailed illustrations and beautiful photography ensure that you won't make a plant-identification misstep as you learn how to tend and properly harvest the plant medicine growing right in your own neighborhood.

After reading Wild Remedies, you'll never look at your backyard, a public park, or any green space in the same way again. Instead of "weeds," you'll see delicious foods like Dandelion Maple Syrup Cake, Nettle Frittata, and Chickweed Pesto. You will revel in nature's pharmacy as you make herbal oils, salves, teas, and many more powerful remedies in your own kitchen.

From the common stinging nettle to exotic adaptogens, the plant world is the most incredible medicine cabinet. With detailed profiles of more than 140 herbs, be inspired by this beautiful book to bring more plants into your life for health and happiness. A 'herbal' is essentially a book that contains a list of plants with notes on each plant's identification and uses.

They were also often a family reference passed down through the generations like a recipe book, with remedies passed from mothers to daughters. Herbals would be used as reminders of when and how to harvest and prepare herbs, empowering families to look after their health. In Healing with Plants: The Chelsea Physic Garden Herbal, discover how to make your own simple herbal remedies, ideas for how to create a healing herb garden and how to forage for herbs in the wild.

A history of healing and fascinating stories are told, including a guide to which ailments each herb can treat and how to use them, from healing trauma with St John's Wort to soothing a sore throat with an infusion of thyme and honey. The herbs included are those most well known for having some therapeutic benefit or that have made significant contributions to the history of medicine. Most are also easily accessible for preparing simple healing home remedies, mainly because they are common garden or hedgerow plants.

Had enough? Feeling hopeless? Don't give up - join the rebellion.

Activist, journalist, founding leader of the Women's Equality Party and 'modern-day suffragette' (Evening Standard) Sophie Walker presents an inspiring, five-step journey to incorporating activism into our lives. Featuring stories of new and seasoned activists - including Amika George and Jack Monroe - campaigning on a range of issues from reproductive rights and poverty to the environment and access to education - the book shows us how to see activism not as a series of pitched battles but as a positive, lifelong learning experience.

Escape the numbing effects of despair, learn to channel anger, arm yourself with hope, practise perseverance and connect with others compassionately. Five Rules for Rebellion explains how we can convert our confusion and impatience into a powerful force for change.

'Thoroughly engaging, empowering and inspiring ...blows invigorating air into the weary world of politics and makes you want to get out there NOW and do something about it' - Ailbhe Smyth, co-director of Together For Yes and convenor of Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment

'If bravery itself could write, it would write like she does' John Berger

Why rebel? Because our footprint on the Earth has never mattered more than now. How we treat it, in the spirit of gift or of theft, has never been more important. Because we need a politics of kindness, but the very opposite is on the rise.

Libertarian fascism, with its triumphal brutalism, its racism and misogyny - a politics that loathes the living world. Because nature is not a hobby. It is the life on which we depend, as Indigenous societies have never forgotten. Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars, and they are lining up now to write rebellion across the skies.
From the author of Wild, this passionate, poetic manifesto for urgent rebellion is also a paean to the deep and extraordinary beauty of the natural world. 'Jay's writing has reduced me to hot throbs of grief; through beauty and subtlety, to the depths of the hurt of these times .

. . and what a liberation to express this, to free the space in my chest to feel the love that propels me forwards' Gail Bradbrook'Chewy, erudite, filled with swing: this is a dazzling book, urgent without ever being worthy, a book that crackles.

Why Rebel is a Tardis, to read it is to enter the massive, a deep interior that hydrates vocation in a time of trouble' Martin Shaw'This short book is beautifully written, and packs a powerful emotional punch. I found myself welling up as I reached the end. At this desperate moment in human history, Why Rebel is surely part of the wake-up call we need' Prof.

Rupert Read'There's a book called Life and Fate and in it, it says that when surrounded by death and destruction the most human thing to do is to engage in an act of kindness. Jay's book is such an act' Roger Hallam

Something is stirring. People around the world are deciding that the well-being of their community and its economy lies with them. They're people like you.

They've had enough, and, rather than waiting for permission, they're rolling up their sleeves, getting together with friends and neighbours, and doing something about it. Whether they start small or big, they're finding that just doing stuff can transform their neighbourhoods and their lives. The Power of Just Doing Stuff argues that this shift represents the seeds of a new economy - the answer to our desperate search for a new way forward - and at its heart is people deciding that change starts with them.

Communities worldwide are already modelling a more local economy rooted in place, in well-being, in entrepreneurship, and in creativity. And it works. Packed with inspiring real-life examples of how to change things, this book ties in with the increasing focus on community action during tough economic times.

It will appeal to schools, community groups and campaigners as well as the general public and Transition groups.

Isabella Tree tells the story of the 'Knepp experiment', a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope. Winner of the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Book Shop Literary Prize.

Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy clay of their land at Knepp was economically unsustainable, Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell made a spectacular leap of faith: they decided to step back and let nature take over. Thanks to the introduction of free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer - proxies of the large animals that once roamed Britain - the 3,500 acre project has seen extraordinary increases in wildlife numbers and diversity in little over a decade. Extremely rare species, including turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, lesser spotted woodpeckers and purple emperor butterflies, are now breeding at Knepp, and populations of other species are rocketing.

The Burrells' degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again, heaving with life - all by itself. Personal and inspirational, Wilding is an astonishing account of the beauty and strength of nature, when it is given as much freedom as possible. Highly Commended by the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize.

Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.

Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Big ideas that just might save the world. the Guardian
A serious book on an important subject. Without imagination, where are we? Sir Quentin Blake

What if we took play seriously? What if we considered imagination vital to our health? What if we followed nature's lead? What if school nurtured young imaginations? What if things turned out okay? Rob Hopkins asks the most important question that society has somehow forgotten - What If? Hopkins explores what we must do to revive and replenish our collective imagination.

If we can rekindle that precious creative spark, whole societies and cultures can change - rapidly, dramatically and unexpectedly - for the better. There really is no end to what we might accomplish. From What Is to What If is the most inspiring, courageous and necessary book you will read this year; a call to action to reclaim and unleash the power of our imaginations and to solve the problems of our time.

Meet the individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now - and creating brighter futures for us all. At last, we have a design for our dreams. I believe we have a debt of honour to take action.

A bold new history of how botany and global plant collecting - centred at Kew Gardens and driven by Joseph Banks - transformed the earth.

Botany was the darling and the powerhouse of the eighteenth century. As European ships ventured across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, discovery bloomed. Bounties of new plants were brought back, and their arrival meant much more than improved flowerbeds - it offered a new scientific frontier that would transform Europe's industry, medicine, eating and drinking habits, and even fashion.

Joseph Banks was the dynamo for this momentous change. As botanist for James Cook's great voyage to the South Pacific on the Endeavour, Banks collected plants on a vast scale, armed with the vision - as a child of the Enlightenment - that to travel physically was to advance intellectually. His thinking was as intrepid as Cook's seafaring: he commissioned radically influential and physically daring expeditions such as those of Francis Masson to the Cape Colony, George Staunton to China, George Caley to Australia, William Bligh to Tahiti and Jamaica, among many others.

Jordan Goodman's epic history follows these high seas adventurers and their influence in Europe, as well as taking us back to the early years of Kew Gardens, which Banks developed devotedly across the course of his life, transforming it into one of the world's largest and most diverse botanical gardens. In a rip-roaring global expedition, based on original sources in many languages, Goodman gives a momentous history of how the discoveries made by Banks and his collectors advanced scientific understanding around the world.

We are all members of a one-earth society, and caring for the earth and soul is interrelated. This is the message of Satish Kumar, the internationally-respected peace and environment activist who has been gently setting the agenda for change for over 50 years. In Soil, Soul & Society, Satish presents the new trinity for our age of sustainability.

One that shares the knowledge that we ourselves are very much part of nature; that what we do to nature we in fact do to ourselves; and that the earth is soulful. In this book, he inspires readers with the knowledge we are all leaders and can create change. He urges readers to create a new consciousness that reveres nature and explores how, as a global society, we need to embrace diversity and become pilgrims on this earth not tourists.

To bring about change in the world we must be the change we wish to see.

"This is the joy we need in our lives." - George Monbiot.
"This book, practical and realistic as well as visionary, will keep that positive message before the reader's eyes. Joy is after all one of the best motivations we can have for change." - Dr Rowan Williams.

Finally! A book about saving our planet that is fast, funny and inspiring too. Written in short chapters for busy people, Isabel doesn't bother with an examination of the problem but gets right on with the solutions. Her aim: to look for every single way we can take care of the planet; how we live and work, travel, shop, eat, drink, dress, vote, play, volunteer, bank - everything.

And to do this wholeheartedly, energetically and joyfully. Beginning with losing her cool in a restaurant that will only provide plastic cutlery, Isabel journeys through native tree planting in the Highlands of Scotland, playing Samba drums with Extinction Rebellion, interviewing in person the people that supply her energy and food - through every solution she can find - until both narrator and reader are fully equipped to be part of the pollution solution.

Learn how to green your business with the help of one of the UK's leading corporate activists. Running a sustainable business doesn't mean that you can't make a profit. In this inspiring book, readers that own businesses of all sizes will learn the value of pursuing ethical policies through the journey of the author's quest to "do it right".

Inside the pages of this sustainable business book, you'll find:- Expert advice on practical ways that businesses can help reverse climate change and promote social justice while generating a profit- Chapters addressing plastics, responsible supply chains, the impact of COVID-19, and building a legacy that inspires the next generation- Real-life examples from Iceland's ongoing quest to be sustainable give insights into leadership and sustainable businessIn the face of global warming, companies are moving towards more eco-friendly business practices and embracing their corporate social responsibility. The Green Grocer explores how one business owner did just that. Richard Walker, who owns a GBP3bn supermarket chain, Iceland, is disrupting this critical sector with his own brand of corporate activism.

From restricting single-use plastic to eradicating palm oil from products in his supermarkets, he explains how you too can make genuine progress on sustainable initiatives while being realistic about profit margins, and obligations to customers and employees. This intimate, challenging, and encouraging book, offers clear-sighted experience and inspiration for any business, whether a large corporation, a start-up, a kitchen-table entrepreneur, or a sole trader, to make a difference.

For readers of Entangled Life and The Hidden Life of Trees, a fascinating journey into the world of plants and animals, and the ways they communicate with each other. In forests, fields, and even gardens, there is a constant exchange of information going on. Animals and plants must communicate with one another to survive, but they also tell lies, set traps, talk to themselves, and speak to each other in a variety of unexpected ways.

Here, behavioural biologist Madlen Ziege reveals the fascinating world of nonhuman communication. In charming, humorous, and accessible prose, she shows how nature's language can help us to understand our own place in the natural world a little better.

Flipping the script on climate change, Eisenstein makes a case for a wholesale reimagining of the framing, tactics, and goals we employ in our journey to heal from ecological destruction.

With research and insight, Charles Eisenstein details how the quantification of the natural world leads to a lack of integration and our "fight" mentality. With an entire chapter unpacking the climate change denier's point of view, he advocates for expanding our exclusive focus on carbon emissions to see the broader picture beyond our short-sighted and incomplete approach. The natural and the material world--the rivers, forests, and creatures--are sacred and valuable in their own right, not simply for carbon credits or preventing the extinction of one species versus another. After all, when you ask someone why they first became an environmentalist, they're not likely to cite humanity's existential crisis, or our society going up in flames; they're likely to point to the river they played in, the ocean they visited, the wild animals they observed, or the trees they climbed when they were a kid. This refocusing away from impending catastrophe and our inevitable doom cultivates meaningful emotional and psychological connections and provides real, actionable steps to caring for the earth. Freeing ourselves from a war mentality and seeing the bigger picture of how everything from prison reform to saving the whales can contribute to our planetary ecological health, we resist reflexive postures of solution and blame and reach toward the deep place where commitment lives.

We live in an oil-dependent world, and have got to this level of dependency in a very short space of time, using vast reserves of oil in the process without planning for when the supply is not so plentiful. Most people don't want to think about what happens when the oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead can have a positive effect. They can lead to the rebirth of local communities, which will generate their own fuel, food and housing.

They can encourage the development of local currencies, to keep money in the local area. They can unleash a local 'skilling-up', so that people have more control over their lives. The Transition Handbook is the manual which will guide communities to begin this 'energy descent' journey.

The argument that 'small is inevitable' is upbeat and positive, as well as utterly convincing. The Transition Companion by Rob Hopkins was published in 2012, and The Power of Just Doing Stuff in 2014.

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.

This book is about how the money system will have to change—and is already changing—to embody this transition. A broadly integrated synthesis of theory, policy, and practice, Sacred Economics explores avant-garde concepts of the New Economics, including negative-interest currencies, local currencies, resource-based economics, gift economies, and the restoration of the commons.

Author Charles Eisenstein also considers the personal dimensions of this transition, speaking to those concerned with "right livelihood" and how to live according to their ideals in a world seemingly ruled by money. Tapping into a rich lineage of conventional and unconventional economic thought, Sacred Economics presents a vision that is original yet commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant as the crises of our civilization deepen.

In 2008, the bestselling The Transition Handbook suggested a model for a community-led response to peak oil and climate change. Since then, the Transition idea has gone viral across the globe, from universities and London neighbourhoods to Italian villages and Brazilian favelas. In contrast to the ever-worsening stream of information about climate change, the economy and resource depletion, Transition focuses on solutions, on community-scale projects and on positive results.

The Transition Companion picks up the story today, describing one of the most fascinating experiments now under way in the world. It shows how communities are working for a future where local enterprises are valued and nurtured; where lower energy use is seen as a benefit; and where cooperation, creativity and the building of resilience are the cornerstones of a new economy. The first part discusses where we are now in terms of resilience to the problems of rising oil prices, climate change and economic uncertainty.

It presents a vision of how the future might look if we succeed in addressing these issues. The book then looks in detail at the process a community in transition goes through, drawing on the experience of those who have already embarked on this journey. These examples show how much can be achieved when people harness energy and imagination to create projects that will make their communities more resilient.

The Transition Companion combines practical advice - the tools needed to start and maintain a Transition initiative - with numerous inspiring stories from local groups worldwide.

Schumacher College, based near Totnes in Devon, England, opened its doors in the early 1990s and is now an internationally-renowned centre for transformative learning on all aspects of sustainable living. James Lovelock led the first course on Gaia theory. A host of visionary thinkers has followed, including mathematician and biologist Brian Goodwin, who died in 2009.

This book is a realisation of his vision for Schumacher College to publish a collection of essays on sustainable solutions to the current global crisis. Themes include the importance of education, science, Transition thinking, economics, energy sources, business and design, in the context of philosophy, spirituality and mythology. The contributors include Satish Kumar, Jules Cashford, Fritjof Capra, Rupert Sheldrake, James Lovelock, Peter Reason, Gideon Kossoff, Craig Holdrege, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Colin Tudge, Nigel Topping and many others.

This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of our society and the environment.

A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience. Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist.

She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest. Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity.

In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

We have to learn to live as part of nature, not apart from it. And the first step is to start looking after the insects, the little creatures that make our shared world go round. Insects are essential for life as we know it.

As they become more scarce, our world will slowly grind to a halt; we simply cannot function without them. Drawing on the latest ground-breaking research and a lifetime's study, Dave Goulson reveals the shocking decline of insect populations that has taken place in recent decades, with potentially catastrophic consequences. He passionately argues that we must all learn to love, respect and care for our six-legged friends.

Eye-opening, inspiring and riveting, Silent Earth is part love letter to the insect world, part elegy, part rousing manifesto for a greener planet. It is a call to arms for profound change at every level - in government policy, agriculture, industry and in our own homes and gardens. Although time is running out, it is not yet too late for insect populations to recover.

We may feel helpless in the face of many of the environmental issues that loom on our horizon, but Goulson shows us how we can all take simple steps to encourage insects and counter their destruction.

Bringing Back the Beaver is farmer-turned-ecologist Derek Gow's inspirational and often riotously funny first-hand account of how the movement to rewild beavers into the British landscape has become the single most dramatic and subversive nature conservation act of the modern era. Since the early 1990s - in the face of outright opposition from government, landowning elites and even some conservation professionals - Gow has imported, quarantined and assisted the reestablishment of beavers in waterways across England and Scotland.

Alongside stories detailing the ups and downs of rewilding beavers, Bringing Back the Beaver makes a passionate case as to why the return of one of nature's great problem solvers will be critical as part of a sustainable fix for the UK's growing flooding problems, whilst ensuring the creation of essential landscapes that enable the broadest spectrum of Britain's wildlife to thrive.

This authentic, impassioned manifesto-cum-memoir will hopefully have a major impact on what is likely to be a long-running controversy. The Spectator
Gow reinvents what it means to be a guardian of the countryside. the GuardianGow has a fire in his belly.
We need more like him. BBC Wildlife Magazine