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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > General
'Blissfully funny, staggeringly informative, a joyful companion'
Caroline Quentin 'Tells the endlessly fascinating tale of Britain's
natural history in a way that makes every delicate detail sparkle
with life' Charlie Corbett, author of 12 Birds to Save Your Life
When we go for a walk, whether in the countryside or city, we pass
through landscapes full of natural beauty and curiosities both
visible and invisible - but though we might admire the view, or
wonder idly about the name of a flower, we rarely have the
knowledge to fully engage with what we see. When we do, our sense
of place is expanded, our understanding deepened and we can
discover richness in even the most everyday stroll. John Wright has
been leading forays around Britain for decades. As an expert
forager, he shows people how to identify the edible species that
abound - but he also reveals the natural history, stories and
science behind our surroundings. Here, he takes us with him on
eight walks: from verdant forests to wild coastlines, via city
pavements, fields and rolling hills, he illuminates what can be
found on a walk across any British terrain, and how you might
observe and truly understand them, for yourself. Warm, wise and
endlessly informative, with helpful illustrations and suggested
routes, this book will help you to see the world around you with
new eyes: no walk will be the same again.
Discover the answers behind the mysteries of the countryside in all
their fascination and beauty... Ever wondered about the masses of
twigs in bare-branched trees that look like abandoned nests? Seen
fuzzy red balls on roses? A stranded pond on a hilltop? Or even
considered the shaded ways we walk along? One of Britain's
best-known naturalists, John Wright describes and explores fifty of
the natural (and unnatural) puzzles of the countryside that might
confound the ever-curious. He reveals the histories and
practicalities of those that are man-made and the astounding and
intricate lives of the natural wonders around us. From the enormous
to the truly tiny he illuminates the oddities that pepper our
countryside and reveals the many pleasures of spotting and
understanding them. Informative, entertaining and beautifully
illustrated, this is for anyone who has ever gone outside and
wondered what is that?
‘This book soars… Parikian is a nature writer at the top of his
game.’ Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of
the Dinosaurs ‘I didn't want this flight to end.’ Jon
Dunn, author of The Glitter in the Green ‘Magical and
uplifting’ Ann Pettifor, author of The Case for the
New Green Deal ___ This is the miracle of flight as you’ve never
seen it before: the evolutionary story of life on the wing. A bird
flits overhead. It’s an everyday occurrence, repeated hundreds,
thousands, millions of times daily by creatures across the world.
It’s something so normal, so entirely taken for granted, that
sometimes we forget how extraordinary it is. But take that in for a
moment. This animal flies. It. Flies. The miracle of flight has
evolved in hugely diverse ways, with countless variations of
flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and
migrating. Conjuring lost worlds, ancient species and ever-shifting
ecologies, this exhilarating new book is a mesmerising encounter
with fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of
300 million years ago to the crested pterosaurs of the Mesozoic
Era, from hummingbirds that co-evolved with rainforest flowers to
the wonders of dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch
butterfly with which we share the planet today. Taking
Flight is a mind-expanding feat of the imagination, a close
encounter with flight in its myriad forms, urging us to look up and
drink in the spectacle of these gravity-defying marvels that
continue to shape life on Earth. ___ Praise for Lev Parikian –
author of the Wainwright Prize-longlisted Into the Tangled
Bank and Light Rains Sometimes Fall: ‘Funny,
accessible and full of wonders’ Melissa Harrison ‘Humour,
attention to detail and beautifully written prose.’ Stephen
Moss
Get away from it all and reignite your wanderlust with this unique
collection of epic landscape photography from some of the remotest
and most spectacular locations around the globe. Curated by
award-winning travel and lifestyle photographer Finn Beales, Let's
Get Lost offers pure visual escapism with over 200 spectacular
shots of remote and beautiful places which will inspire you to get
back out into the world after months and years of lockdowns and
travel restrictions. For the adventurous amongst us, this book
dares you to get off the beaten track andgo in search of the most
remarkable natural environments on the planet. Chapters capturing
off-grid coastal views, rugged mountain landscapes, majestic
forests and expansive wildernesses are all featured, stirring
within you a sense of adventure. From the Pacific Northwest to
Southeast Asia, New Zealand to Scandinavia, these are the places
where amazing photos are taken, now you need to experience them.
For the armchair traveller, this book represents a breathtaking
visual compendium of how beautiful the world can be, with truly
awe-inspiring full page reproductions of some of instagram's most
talented landscape photographers. Each of the photographers
profiled reveal their unique stories and the little-known locations
they have discovered that allow them to capture such breathtaking
images, from Chris Burkard's perilous tour of Russia's extremities,
and Emilie Ristevski's wanderlust-filled journey through Namibia's
wild heart, to Timothy Allen's airborne search for a long-lost
Bulgarian monument. Photographers featured: Finn Beales (finn) Alex
Strohl (alexstrohl) Jonathan Gregson (jonathangregsonphotography)
Richard Gaston (richardgaston) Cath Simard (cathsimard) Emilie
Ristevski (helloemilie) Reuben Wu (itsreuben) Laura Pritchett
(bythebrush) Lucy Laucht (lucylaucht) Chris Burkard (chrisburkard)
Molly Steele (moristeele) Benjamin Hardman (benjaminhardman) Greg
Lecoeur (greg.lecoeur) Charly Savely (charlysavely) Timothy Allen
(timothy_allen) Hannes Becker (hannes_becker) Tobias Hagg
(airpixels) Callum Snape (calsnape) Nicolee Drake (cucinadigitale)
Holly-Marie Cato (h_cato) Mads Peter Iversen
(madspeteriversen_photography)
The Lochaber and Glencoe area is rich in historical associations.
It was at Glenfinnan that Bonnie Prince Charlie started his long
march southwards to lay claim to the British throne, and Glencoe
was the scene of one of the most vicious massacres in Scottish
history. But a longer and even more turbulent history is played out
geologically. Ancient volcanoes erupted in massive explosions,
causing shock waves that reverberated around the planet. Their
eroded remains form some of the breathtaking scenery for which Glen
Coe is famous, as well as the highest mountain in Britain - Ben
Nevis. Ice too played its part as glaciers scraped their passage
across the landscape, carving deep glens and shaving the tops off
the highest mountains. This book is fascinating introduction to the
geology of the area, which features some of Scotland's oldest rocks
and some of its most stunning and dramatic scenery.
"Totch Brown's memoirs of vanished days in the Ten Thousand Islands
and the Everglades--the last real frontier in Florida, and even
today the greatest roadless wilderness in the United States--are
invaluable as well as vivid and entertaining, for Totch is a
natural-born story-teller, and his accounts of fishing and gator
hunting as well as his life beyond the law as gator poacher and
drug runner are evocative and colorful, fresh and exciting."--from
the foreword by Peter Matthiessen In the mysterious wilderness of
swamps, marshes, and rivers that conceals life in the Florida
Everglades, Totch Brown hung up his career as alligator hunter and
commercial fisherman to become a self-confessed pot smuggler.
Before the marijuana money rolled in, he survived excruciating
poverty in one of the most primitive and beautiful spots on earth,
Chokoloskee Island, in the mangrove keys known as the Ten Thousand
Islands located at the western gateway to the Everglades National
Park. Until he wrote this memoir--recollections from his childhood
in the twenties that merge with reflections on a way of life dying
at the hands of progress in the nineties--Totch had never read a
book in his life. Still, his writing conveys the tension he
experienced from trying to live off the land and within the laws of
the land. Told with energy and authenticity, his story begins with
the handful of souls who came to the area a hundred years ago to
homestead on the high ground formed from oyster mounds built and
left by the Calusa Indians. They lived close to nature in shacks
built of tin or palmetto fans; they ate wild meat, Chokoloskee
chicken (white ibis), swamp cabbage, even--when they were
desperate--manatee; and they weathered all manner of natural
disaster from hurricanes to swarms of "swamp angels" (mosquitoes).
In his grandpa's day, Totch writes, outlaws and cutthroats would
"shoot a man down just as quick as they'd knock down an egret,
especially if he came between them and the plume birds." His
grandparents were both contemporaries of Ed J. Watson, the subject
of Peter Matthiessen's best-selling Killing Mr. Watson, and Totch
is featured in the recent award-winning PBS film Lost Man's River:
An Everglades Adventure with Peter Matthiessen. He also appeared in
Wind Across the Everglades, the 1957 Budd Schulberg movie in which
Totch and Burl Ives sing some of Totch's Florida cracker songs.
Loren G. "Totch" Brown was born in Chokoloskee, Florida, in 1920.
After purchasing his first motorboat at the age of thirteen (and
retiring from formal schooling after the seventh grade) he worked
as an alligator hunter, commercial fisherman, crabber, professional
guide, poacher, marijuana runner, singer, and songwriter.
A balm for our times from the internationally bestselling author of
Wintering. Our sense of enchantment is not only sparked by grand
things. The awe-inspiring, the numinous, is all around us, all the
time. It is transformed by our deliberate attention. The magic is
of our own conjuring. 'A total joy . . . Thoughtful, patient and
beautifully written, like walking with a friend as dusk settles,
this is the book your soul needs right now.' CARIAD LLOYD
'Beautifully written.' PHILIPPA PERRY Feeling bone-tired, anxious
and overwhelmed by the rolling news cycle and the pandemic age,
Katherine May seeks to unravel the threads of a life wound too
tightly. Could there be another way to live - one that feels more
meaningful, more grounded in the places beneath our feet? One that
would allow us to feel more connected, more rested and at ease,
even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Craving a different
path, May explores the restorative properties of the natural world
and begins to rekindle her sense of wonder. It is a journey that
takes her from sacred wells to wild moors, from cradling seas to
starfalls. Through deliberate attention and ritual, she finds
nourishment and a more hopeful relationship to the world around
her. Enchantment is an invitation to each of us to experience life
in all its sensual complexity and to find the beauty waiting for us
there. Praise for Wintering: 'A beautiful, gentle exploration of
the dark season of life and the light of spring that eventually
follows.' RAYNOR WINN 'A book for the soul.' CAITLIN MORAN 'Every
bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself.' ELIZABETH
GILBERT 'Absolutely beautiful.' CHERYL STRAYED
*A Times, Financial Times, Observer and Nature Book of the Year* We
still have time to change the world. From Greta Thunberg, the
world's leading climate activist, comes the essential handbook for
making it happen. You might think it's an impossible task: secure a
safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen,
against all the odds. There is hope - but only if we listen to the
science before it's too late. In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg
has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts -
geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers,
economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and
indigenous leaders - to equip us all with the knowledge we need to
combat climate disaster. Alongside them, she shares her own stories
of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world,
revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of
our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of
hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And
if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could
we do collectively if we tried? We are alive at the most decisive
time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly
impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.
After giving up a hectic life as a journalist in Europe and
Hollywood in the late 1960s to return to his boyhood love of
nature, Mike Tomkies moved to Eilean Shona, a remote island off the
west coast of Scotland. There he rebuilt an abandoned croft house
and began a new way of life observing nature. He tracked foxes and
stags, made friends with seals and taught an injured sparrow-hawk
to hunt for itself. It was the indomitable spirit of this tiny bird
that taught Tomkies what it takes for any of us to be truly free.
Whether he was fishing, growing his own food or battling through
stormy seas in a tiny boat, he learned that he could survive in the
harsh environment. This is the astonishing story of daring to take
the first step away from urban routines and embracing a harsh yet
immensely rewarding way of life which, in turn, led Tomkies to an
even more remote location and inspired an acclaimed series of books
on various animals and the challenges and joys of living in remote
places.
Sasol Eerste Veldgids tot die Paddas van Suider-Afrika is ’n interessante gids tot die paddas van die streek. Volkleurfoto’s, verspreidingskaarte en verstaanbare teks sal nuwelinge en aspirantnatuurkenners help om die algemeenste paddaspesies in Suider-Afrika uit te ken, te ontdek waar hulle voorkom en te leer van hul unieke gedrag en buitengewone eienskappe.
'If ever I saw blessing in the air I see it now in this still early
day...' Laurie Lee is beloved for his writing on a lost rural
world. His evocative poetry springs from his deep connection with
nature, as he tracks the seasons changing and the years turning
over. Yet Lee's poems also captured war, human relationships and
distant places, informed by his own experiences of lives uprooted
by change and conflict. Written during the course of his lifetime,
the verses brought together in Collected Poems range over Lee
playing his fiddle in a Spanish town; ecstatic in springtime of his
beloved Slad valley; or digging for faith in the depths of winter.
Gathered in one volume for the first time, and including a generous
selection of previously unseen verses from Lee's archives, these
timeless, poignant poems show him expressing the essence of life,
love and loss.
Day Walks in Somerset features 20 routes between 7 and 15 miles
(11km and 24km) in length, spread across the county of Somerset,
including the Exmoor National Park. Researched and written by
experienced and local authors Jen and Sim Benson, the walks range
from gentle rambles to more challenging day walks, all through
interesting and varied landscapes. Split into five sections –
Exmoor; Quantock Hills & Blackdown Hills; Somerset Levels;
Mendip Hills; and Bath & North East Somerset – this guidebook
explores the best that Somerset has to offer. Together with
stunning photography, each route features Ordnance Survey 1:25,000
maps, easy-to-follow directions, details of distance and navigation
information, and refreshment stops and local information.
These are some of the most breathtaking images from Weather
Photographer of the Year, the annual competition held by The Royal
Meteorological Society. They depict thrilling weather events of
every kind and often reveal fascinating stories about their impact
on human society. Each image has been selected by a panel of
meteorologists, photographers and photo editors who look for a
combination of skillful camera work and meteorological observation.
Also included are six essays which address various aspects of
climate change, not least its impact on extreme weather.
Beat the boredom and take time out from screens with this
pocket-sized book packed with facts, photos and fantastic spots for
hours of fun! Kids will have fun collecting points outdoors with
more than 140 things to find. From basalt to sandstone, ammonites
to shark teeth, they’ll learn all about their appearance,
texture, uses and where to find them. And once they’ve scored
1000 points, super-spotters can claim their official i-SPY
certificate and badge. With more than 30 i-SPY books to collect,
there’s something for everyone! For even more fun outdoors check
out i-SPY Nature (ISBN 9780008386467).
A journey through time and around the world to uncover water's true
nature, and how it can help us adapt to climate change. Trouble
with water – increasingly frequent, extreme floods and droughts
– is one of the first obvious signs of climate change. Meanwhile,
urban sprawl, industrial agriculture and engineered water
infrastructure are making things worse. As our control attempts
fail, we are forced to recognize an eternal truth: sooner or later,
water always wins. Award-winning science journalist Erica Gies
follows water 'detectives' as they search for clues to water's past
and present. Their tools: cutting-edge science and research into
historical ecology, animal life, and earlier human practices. Their
discoveries: a deeper understanding of what water wants and how
accommodating nature can protect us and other species. Modern
civilizations tend to speed water away. We have forgotten that it
must flex with the rhythms of the earth, and that only
collaboration with nature will allow us to forge a more resilient
future.
Poems to celebrate spring. A sublime bedside companion to enjoy as
the frost melts and days grow longer, with poems to immerse
yourself in the season. From William Blake and Emily Dickinson to
Robert Browning and Eleanor Farjeon, some of the finest poets that
ever put pen to paper describe this wondrous season of new
beginnings. With one entry for every day through spring, from 1st
March until 31st May, this collection of 91 poems will invigorate
you in the warmer and wetter months of Spring, from Robert
Herrick's first drops of March dew and the breaking blossoms of
Laurence Binyon's April day to William Blake's meadow-sweet May and
Emily Dickinson's promise of light to come. This beautiful and
collectable anthology of poems derives from the popular A Poem for
Every Night of the Year and features poems inspired by springtime
by Laurence Binyon, Margaret Cavendish, Amy Lowell, William
Wordsworth and many more.
New York Times best-selling author and renowned science journalist
Ed Yong compiles the best science and nature writing published in
2020. "The stories I have chosen reflect where I feel the field of
science and nature writing has landed, and where it could go," Ed
Yong writes in his introduction. "They are often full of tragedy,
sometimes laced with wonder, but always deeply aware that science
does not exist in a social vacuum. They are beautiful, whether in
their clarity of ideas, the elegance of their prose, or often
both." The essays in this year's Best American Science and Nature
Writing brought clarity to the complexity and bewilderment of 2020
and delivered us necessary information during a global pandemic.
From an in-depth look at the moment of the virus's outbreak, to a
harrowing personal account of lingering Covid symptoms, to a
thoughtful analysis on how the pandemic will impact the
environment, these essays, as Yong says, "synthesize, evaluate,
dig, unveil, and challenge," imbuing a pivotal moment in history
with lucidity and elegance. THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE
WRITING 2021 INCLUDES - SUSAN ORLEAN - EMILY RABOTEAU - ZEYNEP
TUFEKCI - HELEN OUYANG - HEATHER HOGAN BROOKE JARVIS - SARAH ZHANG
and others
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