The International Bestseller ‘Somehow, the elephants got into my soul, and it became my life’s work to see them safe and happy. There was no giving up on that vision, no matter how hard the road was at times.’ Françoise Malby-Anthony is the owner of a game reserve in South Africa with a remarkable family of elephants whose adventures have touched hearts around the world. The herd’s feisty matriarch Frankie knows who’s in charge at Thula Thula, and it’s not Françoise. But when Frankie becomes ill, and the authorities threaten to remove or cull some of the herd if the reserve doesn’t expand, Françoise is in a race against time to save her beloved elephants . . . The joys and challenges of a life dedicated to conservation are vividly described in this charming and moving book. The search is on to get a girlfriend for orphaned rhino Thabo – and then, as his behaviour becomes increasingly boisterous, a big brother to teach him manners. Françoise realizes a dream with the arrival of Savannah the cheetah – an endangered species not seen in the area since the 1940s – and finds herself rescuing meerkats kept as pets. But will Thula Thula survive the pandemic, an invasion from poachers and the threat from a mining company wanting access to its land? As Françoise faces her toughest years yet, she realizes once again that with their wisdom, resilience and communal bonds, the elephants have much to teach us. 'Enthralling' – Daily Mail

"Evocative, muscular." - Kathleen Jamie. Karen Lloyd takes us on a deeply personal journey around the 60 miles of coastline that make up 'nature's amphitheatre'. Embarking on a series of walks that take in beguiling landscapes and ever-changing seascapes, Karen tells the stories of the places, people, wildlife and history of Morecambe Bay. So we meet the King's Guide to the Sands, discover forgotten caves and islands that don't exist, and delight in the simple beauty of an oystercatcher winging its way across the ebbing tide. As we walk with Karen, she explores her own memories of the bay, making an unwitting pilgrimage through her own past and present, as well as that of the bay. The result is a singular and moving account of one of Britain's most alluring coastal areas.

Sure, sex is great, but have you ever cracked open a new notebook and written something on the first page with a really nice pen? The story behind Notebook starts with a minor crime: the theft of Tom Cox's rucksack from a Bristol pub in 2018. In that rucksack was a journal containing ten months' worth of notes, one of the many Tom has used to record his thoughts and observations over the past twelve years. It wasn't the best he had ever kept - his handwriting was messier than in his previous notebook, his entries more sporadic - but he still grieved for every one of the hundred or so lost pages. This incident made Tom appreciate how much notebook-keeping means to him: the act of putting pen to paper has always led him to write with an unvarnished, spur-of-the-moment honesty that he wouldn't achieve on-screen. Here, Tom has assembled his favourite stories, fragments, moments and ideas from those notebooks, ranging from memories of his childhood to the revelation that 'There are two types of people in the world. People who fucking love maps, and people who don't.' The result is a book redolent of the real stuff of life, shot through with Cox's trademark warmth and wit.

Cat lovers will know all too well that one of the characteristics they admire most is their cat's ability to remain mysterious, but new and seasoned owners alike will also know that because of this we often misread their signals and some of their behaviours still perplex us.

Dr Sarah Brown, a renowned cat behaviourist and a leading charge at the forefront of research in the field, reveals the previously unexplored secrets of cat communication.

By understanding how your cat communicates and what their behaviours really mean, you can build a deeper, more meaningful relationship with your cat.

The karst landforms of China are renowned around the world for the beauty of their landscapes, but it is less well appreciated that they also contain extensive cave systems with very significant underwater habitats. China also has an extremely high level of biodiversity, including over 1,500 freshwater fish species. Unsurprisingly, some of these species inhabit the karst cave systems and have flourished and diversified under unique environmental conditions. As a result, cave fishes in China are particularly abundant and diverse when compared to those of other countries of the world. These remarkable fishes have received considerable research attention from Chinese ichthyologists and, for the first time, this book makes their resulting findings directly accessible to the English-speaking world through a remarkable endeavour of Sino-British collaboration.

Revised in 2020 with 218 new terms, this pocket-sized glossary is essential for everyone in the tree care industry as a foundation for using a shared language of defined terms to work with professionals in arboriculture and related fields. The 2020 edition also includes expanded terminology for tree risk assessment and stationary rope climbing systems, hundreds of enhanced, clarified, and updated definitions, and a reference guide for abbreviations and acronyms.

A book of evocative and atmospheric photographs taken by Dick Hawkes to create a representative record of this precious and ecologically unique habitat - before much of it is lost to the many threats it faces. Chalk streams have been described as England's "rainforest". Around 85% of the world's chalk streams are in England. They are beautiful, biologically distinct and amazingly rich in wildlife, but are under threat from man-made issues of abstraction, pollution from chemicals and effluent, development for housing, and climate change. Included in the book are images of typical habitats and species of wildlife found in chalk streams and water meadows, highlighting those that are rare or most under threat.

Follow the story of a dog named Skye, who really was found in a skip and after many adventures, her return home after six years. This heart warming true tale is a tribute to the power hope, and of the microchip!

From the bestselling author of Darwin's Dragons and My Friend the Octopus comes an exciting historical adventure - with a touch of magic - set aboard the Titanic ... Young cabin steward, Sid, is proud to be working on the Titanic, the greatest ship ever built. Clara dreams of adventure too, but she's a stowaway in the hold of a much smaller boat, Carpathia. Here she meets the biggest, best dog she's ever known: Rigel, who is on his way to be reunited with his owner. None of them could have imagined how they would need each other one ice-cold terrible night - or that an extraordinary sea creature might also answer their call ... The third middle-grade historical adventure from the author of Darwin's Dragons and My Friend the Octopus A new spin on the sinking of the Titanic, offering an uplifting alternate history of real-life survivor, Sid Daniels A touching animal friendship lies at the heart of the story, as well as hints of mythology Showcases Lindsay Galvin's trademark combination of exciting adventure, rip-roaring history and non-fiction elements PRAISE FOR DARWIN'S DRAGONS: 'A striking and original adventure ... just the sort of story I love.' EMMA CARROLL 'WHAT a voyage! [Darwin's Dragons] is everything you hope it will be ...' LUCY STRANGE '[A] beautifully fictionalised story' THE TELEGRAPH

WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2022 'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account . . . [making] clear sense out of very complex narratives' - The Times 'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy reading this book? - Everybody!' Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place - covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea. From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you've never seen it before. Life teems through Henry Gee's words - colossal supercontinents drift, collide, and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from 'gregarious' bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life's evolutionary steps - from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight - are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.

Everybody knows Albert is clumsy, but can he go to Magic School without anything going wronga |.? Albert and his brothers and sisters were born in July 2015. Buster was rescued in February 2018. A percentage of the sales will be going to an Animal charity.

'Roger Phillips has written the best mushroom book I know.' - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, author of River Cottage Veg Every Day! The culmination of over thirty years' work, Roger Phillips's authoritative and superbly illustrated reference work is packed with information and original photographs. The essential illustrated mycological encyclopedia, this book is also clear, user friendly and will appeal to a wide range of readers. Unsurpassed in both illustrative and descriptive detail, Mushrooms contains over 1,250 photographs, often showing the specimens in various stages of growth, and includes all the latest botanical and common names as well as current ecological information on endangered species. Having sold more than 750,000 copies in Europe of his previous title on mushrooms, Roger Phillips's Mushrooms once again sets the benchmark. Quite simply, nobody with an interest in the subject can afford to be without this book.

As indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most?

Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth―its abundance of sweet, juicy berries―to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

Conservationist Grant Fowlds lives to save and protect Africa's rhinos, elephants and other iconic wildlife, to preserve their habitats, to increase their range and bring back the animals where they have been decimated by decades of war, as in Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This vivid account of his work tells of a fellow conservationist tragically killed by the elephants he was seeking to save and a face-off with poachers, impoverished rural people exploited by rapacious local businessmen. Fowlds describes the impact of the Covid pandemic on conservation efforts, the vital wildlife tourism that sustains these and rural communities; and tells of conservationists' efforts to support people through the crisis. Lockdowns may have brought a welcome lull in rhino and other poaching, but also brought precious tourism to a standstill. He shows how the pandemic has highlighted the danger to the world of the illicit trade in endangered wildlife, some of it sold in 'wet markets', where pathogens incubate and spread. He describes a restoration project of apartheid-era, ex-South African soldiers seeking to make reparations in Angola, engulfed for many years in a profoundly damaging civil war, which drew in outside forces, from Cuba, Russia and South Africa, with a catastophic impact on that country's wildlife. Those who fund conservation, whether in the US, Zambia or South Africa itself, are of vital importance to efforts to conserve and rewild: some supposed angel-investors turn out to be not what they had appeared, some are thwarted in their efforts, but others are open-hearted and generous in the extreme, which makes their sudden, unexpected death an even greater tragedy. A passionate desire to conserve nature has also brought conservationists previously active in far-off Venezuela to southern Africa. Fowlds describes fraught meetings to negotiate the coexistence of wildlife and rural communities. There are vivid accounts of the skilled and dangerous work of using helicopters to keep wildebeest, carrying disease, and cattle apart, and to keep elephants from damaging communal land and eating crops such as sugar cane. He tells of a project to restore Africa's previously vast herds of elephants, particularly the famed 'tuskers', with their unusually large tusks, once prized and hunted almost to extinction. The range expansion that this entails is key to enabling Africa's iconic wildlife to survive, to preserving its wilderness and, in turn, helping humankind to survive. There is a heartening look at conservation efforts in Mozambique, a country scarred by years of war, which are starting to bear fruit, though just as a new ISIS insurgency creates havoc in the north of the country. What will humanity's relationship with nature be post-pandemic? Will we have begun to learn that by conserving iconic wildlife and their habitats we help to preserve and restore precious pockets of wilderness, which are so vital not only the survival of wildlife, but to our own survival on our one precious planet.

Established over a century ago, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) was the world's first international conservation organisation. The pioneering work of its founders in Africa led to the creation of numerous protected areas, including Kruger and Serengeti National Parks. For the first time, the story of FFI's history is told in its entirety. Throughout its history, FFI has repeatedly broken new ground. It is renowned for its innovative, landmark programmes, many of which have come to be regarded as classic examples of conservation practice: the eleventh-hour rescue of the Arabian oryx in 1962; the multifaceted Mountain Gorilla Project launched in 1978; Tunnels for Toads in 1987, one of countless campaigns on behalf of the UK's neglected amphibians, reptiles and bats; a 1994 botanical initiative in Turkey that anticipated the Important Plant Area concept; and, in 2000, the first programme to put biodiversity firmly on the agenda of blue-chip companies. It has been instrumental in creating much of today's global conservation infrastructure, including such well-known institutions as IUCN - The World Conservation Union, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. To this day, FFI continues to blaze a trail for others to follow, and this beautifully illustrated volume showcases its illustrious history. With a Foreword by Sir David Attenborough, FFI's Vice-President, the book is filled with stunning photography throughout, making it the perfect gift for nature and wildlife enthusiasts.

"Curlews give their liquid, burbling call, a call of pure happiness, the music of the fells." Ella Pontefract, 1936, Wensleydale The North of England abounds with beauty, from unspoiled beaches in Northumberland to the dramatic Lakeland Fells, for so long celebrated by writers and artists. Wide estuaries, winding rivers, sheer cliffs, rushing waterfalls, ancient woodland, limestone pavements, and miles of hedgerows and drystone walls sustainably built and rebuilt over centuries - all form part of its rich heritage. But these are, too, contested and depleted landscapes. Today the curlew's call is isolated, and many other species are in decline. Industry, urban sprawl and climate chaos threaten our environment on a previously unimagined scale. And while stereotypes persist - of dark satanic mills or "bleak" moorland - the imperative of conservation is all too often overlooked for short-term economic interests. This essential volume reminds us how and why Northern people have risen to the challenge of defending their open spaces, demanding action on pollution and habitat loss. Contemporary writers including Sarah Hall, Lee Schofield, Benjamin Myers and Lemn Sissay take their place alongside those who wrote in previous centuries. Together, the voices in this one-of-a-kind anthology testify that North Country is a place apart.