Showing titles in Nature & Ecology

Our precious archipelago is ravaged by climate change, bereft of natural ecosystems and lies at the mercy of global warming, flooding, drought and catastrophic biodiversity loss. But could restoring species that once helped protect our islands help turn this crisis around? From familiar yet imperilled honeybees and ancient oak woods to returning natives like beavers and boars, Britain’s cornerstone species may hold the key to recovering our biodiversity on land and in our seas.

Why is it that catching a fish, or simply contemplating catching a fish, can be so thrilling, so captivating? Why is it that what seems such a simple act—that of casting a line and hoping—can feel so rich in mystery? Illuminated by Water is Malachy's personal attempt to understand that freedom and to trace the origins and sources of that sense of wonder. He shares the appeal of fishing, its intense joys and frustrations, the steadying effect it has both at water's edge and in the memory, and the contemplation of nature and landscape that comes with being an angler.

A very popular audio guide which helps to identify the birds that come to our gardens. This download features top-quality recordings of the typical songs and calls of the fifty-two species most commonly found in British gardens. The perfect introduction to learning and identifying bird sounds in your garden.

Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Running Hare by John Lewis-Stempel, read by Bernard Hill. Traditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last twenty years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are...

The fourth volume of memoirs from the author who inspired the BBC and Channel 5 series All Creatures Great and Small. This audio edition is read by Nicholas Ralph, known for his role as James Herriot in the All Creatures Great and Small TV series. Finally home from London after his wartime...

‘There’s water in the engine,’ he said. ‘The engine has stopped.’ This changed everything… Surviving the Storms brings together incredible first-hand accounts of rescues carried out by the remarkable RNLI lifesavers. In this collection of heart-wrenching and life-affirming missions...

Brought to you by Penguin. A TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture and consciousness. For centuries, we have acted on an intuitive sense that...

Joy Adamson is world-famous as the woman who walked with lions. These are the books that brought the story of her work to a public whose imagination was captured by the discovery of this remarkable interaction between man and beast. Born Free was first published in 1960, and tells the story of...

On New Year’s Day 2012, Amy-Jane Beer’s beloved friend Kate set out with a group of others to kayak the River Rawthey in Cumbria. Kate never came home, and her death left her devoted family and friends bereft and unmoored. Returning to visit the Rawthey years later, Amy realises how much she misses the connection to the natural world she always felt when on or close to rivers, and so begins a new phase of exploration.

A toxic ideology rules the world of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. Only a positive vision can replace it, a new story that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to a better world. George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast human nature in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators.

Don't miss Clare's powerful new book on grief, I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This - out now. --------------------------------- From bestselling author Clare Mackintosh, A Cotswold Family Life is a humorous, warm memoir of family life in the countryside 'Insightful, funny, absorbing' Prue...

Most of us are aware of the hive mind—the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka draws from decades of research, including his own pioneering work, to argue that bees have remarkable cognitive abilities. He shows that they are profoundly smart, have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers and human faces, exhibit basic emotions, count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. They may even possess consciousness.

Brought to you by Penguin. A stunning meditation on how the physical world can bring us back to earth from the edge of grief In the aftermath of catastrophic loss, a mother and her young son cross the Atlantic, taking refuge in a wooden house on a remote strip of land. Viewed from the shore...

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Jan Zalasiewicz gives a brief introduction to the fascinating field of geology. Describing how the science developed from its early beginnings, he looks at some of the key discoveries that have transformed it before delving into its various subfields, such as sedimentology, tectonics, and stratigraphy.

This fascinating yet disquieting audiobook finds that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are, and have long been, using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations.

'A surprising page-turner, full of humour and startling details' THE TIMES 'If I read a better history this year, I will be lucky' TOM HOLLAND 'An astonishing tour de force’ SPECTATOR Shortlisted for the HWA Nonfiction Crown Award Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize From Peter Marshall...

In 2020, writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole moved from London to Devon. As he explored the wooded valleys, rivers and tors of Dartmoor, Guy discovered a spectacular habitat that he had never encountered before: temperate rainforest. Entranced, he would spend the coming months investigating the history, ecology and distribution of rainforests across England, Wales and Scotland. Britain, Guy discovered, was once a rainforest nation. This is the story of a unique habitat that has been so ravaged, most people today don’t realise it exists.

Brought to you by Penguin From the acclaimed author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia, comes a new journey, following four 19th century elephants marched from the East African coast towards Congo, to tell a heartbreaking story of folly and colonial greed. Featuring immersive field recordings...

Hidden in the names of English towns and villages, in copses, fields, lanes and hills, are the ghostly traces of birds conjuring powerful identities for people in ancient landscapes. What are their stories and secrets? How did people encounter birds over a thousand years ago? In The Cuckoo’s Lea, Michael J. Warren sets out on the trail of these ghosts. Captivated and guided by the secrets of place names, he finds their stories entangled with his own explorations of places through birds all across England.

Brought to you by Penguin. Woodland, moorland, sea... Great Britain is home to vast array of beautiful natural settings, each with its own unique sounds. The award-winning audiobook for The Lost Words and its sister, The Lost Spells, showcased the immersive power of a natural soundscape...