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The Green Sketching Handbook: Relax, Unwind and Reconnect with Nature
by Ali Foxon'A warm and inspiring invitation to put down our phones, pick up a pencil and start really looking at the beauty all around us.' - Kathy Clugston, presenter of Gardener's Question TimeLearn to let go of your worries and lose yourself in nature with this practical guide to sketching for pleasure, not perfection. Most of us know that creativity and time outdoors are good for our wellbeing, yet so many of us struggle to find the time or motivation to step away from our screens. But there’s a solution! Combining quick and easy exercises with the latest research on nature connection, wellbeing and creativity, The Green Sketching Handbook will inspire you to pick up a pencil and get started. Inspired by her own journey from climate scientist who hadn't tried drawing since childhood to artist and nature lover, Dr Ali Foxon will show you how to embrace your wobbly lines, unhook from a fear of criticism and create a habit that makes you feel good, not inadequate. You will learn more about yourself and your unique relationship with nature, finding out what brings you comfort and joy. Best of all, you'll create vivid and evocative memories of all your outdoor adventures, big and small, even if you’re convinced you can’t draw.
A Robot Squashed My Teacher (A Dinosaur Ate My Sister)
by Pooja PuriA Robot Squashed My Teacher is the laugh-out-loud, wacky adventure by Pooja Puri brilliantly illustrated by Allen Fatiaharan, the sequel to the Marcus Rashford Bookclub Selected book A Dinosaur Ate My Sister. Before you start reading, there are a few things you should know:1. I, Esha Verma, am a genius inventor extraordinaire.2. I like lists.3. I did not mean to turn my teacher into a pigeon. Some things just can't be helped.Esha Verma, her snotty apprentice Broccoli and his secretly cunning pet tortoise have a dream. They are going to win the legendary Brain Trophy – the ultimate inventing prize. This year's entry: The RoarEasy – a gadget that lets the user speak to animals.But when Esha's arch-nemesis, fellow inventor Ernie, lands her in detention, the RoarEasy malfunctions and suddenly Monsieur Crépeau is TRANSFORMED INTO A PIGEON.Luckily for Esha, she knows exactly what she needs to repair her invention and where to find it: locked away in the mysterious Central Research Laboratories. She, Broccoli, Archibald and Monsieur Crépeau will have to go undercover and break into the labs before the competition to return Monsieur Crépeau to his human form. And with Ernie following them, determined to foil their plans as they face giant robots, killer plants, shrinking machines, robo-spiders, clouds that make you float and terrifying twisters, they're going to need all the help they can get to get out of this wacky pickle.
A Wild Child's Book of Birds
by Dara McAnultyJoin brilliant young naturalist Dara McAnulty – winner of the 2020 Wainwright Prize for his book Diary of a Young Naturalist and author of Wild Child! – on a journey through a year in the life of birds. A Wild Child's Book of Birds is a fantastic nature book, illustrated in full colour by Barry Falls.This beautiful, informative book takes you through a year in the life of the birds you will find in Britain and Ireland and is divided into four sensational seasonal sections. Find out what birds do in each season, learn about birdsong, beaks, nests and eggs, the science of flight, migration, what to grow to attract different birds to your garden and what foods to put out on your bird table. Learn about different ways of recording what you see and about birds in literature. There are sections on birds of prey and corvids too.
A Song of Gladness: A Story of Hope for Us and Our Planet
by Michael MorpurgoTravel the globe in this inspiring journey through the animal kingdom. A Song of Gladness is a timely reminder of the beauty and importance of the natural world from two of today's most celebrated children's book creators.From a blackbird in a Devon garden to leopards in the African savanna, hibernating bears and chimpanzees high in the forest canopy, A Song of Gladness reminds us all of our connection with nature, and with each other, and the urgent need for us to join together in caring for the planet and every creature in it. Former Children's Laureate and CILIP Carnegie Medal winner Sir Michael Morpurgo's beautiful story is both moving and full of hope; the illustrations from twice CILIP Kate Greenaway-winning Emily Gravett are breathtaking. This gorgeous book is a classic in the making and the perfect gift for any animal and nature lover.
The Joy Journal For Grown-ups: 50 homemade craft ideas to inspire creativity and connection
by Laura Brand'This book is a chance to slow down and find stillness. Self-care in the most beautiful, creative ways.' Fearne CottonFifty imaginative ideas for crafts that encourage a sense of joy and mindfulness. Includes a foreword by Melissa Hemsley.The Joy Journal For Grown-ups invites you to experiment, play and unlock your creative potential with a range of simple crafts that can bring a little more calm into your everyday life. Using store-cupboard ingredients and easily foraged supplies, this beautifully illustrated handbook includes new and inspiring ideas for adding a personal touch to celebrations, creating unique gifts, and making stunning keepsakes.Whether you are a beginner or confident crafter, bestselling author Laura Brand gently guides you through a host of delightful projects including beautiful flower-pressed candles, scented body butter, and origami hearts. She invites you to carve out 'me time' and enjoy shared creative experiences with friends that can help us to feel more connected and harness the freedom of play from childhood.Imaginative, engaging and easy to follow, this gorgeous, step-by-step guide features all the encouragement you need to find inspiration, awaken your creativity and brighten your mood.
A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis
by Vanessa Nakate'Vanessa Nakate continues to teach a most critical lesson. She reminds us that while we may all be in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat.' - Greta ThunbergIn A Bigger Picture, Vanessa Nakate exposes the shortcomings of our global discussions around climate change, which consistently envisage the environmental crisis as a problem for future generations. Such an image is only possible through the erasure of the voices of people living in the Global South, where environmental disasters are already having a devastating impact on communities, and especially on women.This is one of the great injustices of the climate crisis: those who have contributed the least to its creation are now suffering its consequences most severely. Despite this, people from the Global South – and people of colour from across the world – are often expunged from the picture of climate activism, as typified by Vanessa's own erasure from a press photograph at Davos in 2020. As she explains, 'we are on the front line, but we are not on the front page.'Witnessing the destructive effects of global warming in her own community propelled Vanessa to become the first climate striker in Uganda at just twenty-one years old, despite risks to her personal safety. In this exceptional book, she traces the links between the climate crisis and anti-racism, feminism, economics and even extremist radicalization, revealing how our best hope of saving our planet is to work together across continents. In telling the inspiring personal story of how she found her voice, Vanessa shows readers that no matter your age, location or skin colour, you can be an effective activist.
Our Place in Nature: Selected Writings (Macmillan Collector's Library #341)
by Zachary SeagerWith the natural world increasingly under threat, Our Place in Nature explores one of the most topical issues of our day; our appreciation of nature and recognition of our place in it.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Zachary Seager.A timely anthology of classic writing exploring our complex relationship with the natural world. Famous names such as George Orwell, Dorothy Wordsworth, John Muir and Rachel Carson are gathered here to share their wonder, concern and appreciation for our place in nature.
Among Flowers: A Walk In The Himalaya (Picador Collection #22)
by Jamaica KincaidCelebrating Fifty Years of Picador BooksIn this acclaimed travel memoir Jamaica Kincaid chronicles a spectacular and exotic three-week trek through the Himalayan land of Nepal, where she and her companions are gathering seeds for planting at home. The natural world and, in particular, plants and gardening are central to Kincaid’s work. Among Flowers intertwines meditations on nature and stunning descriptions of the Himalayan landscape with observations on the ironies, difficulties and dangers of this magnificent journey.For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise, a place where a single day’s hike can traverse climate zones, from subtropical to alpine, encompassing flora suitable for growing at their homes, from Wales to Vermont. Yet as she makes clear, there is far more to this foreign world than rhododendrons that grow thirty feet high. Danger, too, is a constant companion – and the leeches are the least of their worries. Unpredictable Maoist guerrillas live in these perilous mountains, and when they do appear – as they do more than once – their enigmatic presence lingers long after they have melted back into the landscape. And Kincaid, who writes of the looming, lasting effects of colonialism in her works, necessarily explores the irony of her status as memsahib with Sherpas and bearers.A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a vivid, engrossing, and characteristically frank memoir from one of the most striking voices in contemporary literature.Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best in modern literature.
Oak
by Katharine TowersOak is terrifically imaginative look at the life-cycle of the oak, from acorn to mighty, its place in the forest ecosystem, the home it provides for other animals, the role, both practical and mythical, that it plays in the human realm. It is a remarkable window into the slow journey of a different kind of consciousness and being, one we rarely see depicted in this way.
The Fell
by Sarah MossAcclaimed author of Summerwater and Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss is back with a sharply observed and darkly funny novel for our times.'A tense page turner . . . I gulped The Fell down in one sitting' - Emma Donoghue'This slim, intense masterpiece is one of my best books of the year' - Rachel Joyce At dusk on a November evening in 2020 a woman slips out of her garden gate and turns up the hill. Kate is in the middle of a two-week quarantine period, but she just can’t take it any more – the closeness of the air in her small house, the confinement. And anyway, the moor will be deserted at this time. Nobody need ever know. But Kate’s neighbour Alice sees her leaving and Matt, Kate’s son, soon realizes she’s missing. And Kate, who planned only a quick solitary walk – a breath of open air – falls and badly injures herself. What began as a furtive walk has turned into a mountain rescue operation . . . Unbearably suspenseful, witty and wise, The Fell asks probing questions about the place the world has become since March 2020, and the place it was before. This novel is a story about compassion and kindness and what we must do to survive, and it will move you to tears. ‘One of the best writers at work in Britain today’ – Fiona Mozley, author of Elmet ‘One of our very best contemporary novelists’ – Independent
Tidy
by Emily GravettWinner of the Independent Bookshop Week Picture Book Award 2017.From the creator of Meerkat Mail and Dogs, comes a very funny rhyming woodland story about the perils of being too tidy.Pete the badger likes everything to be neat and tidy at all times, but what starts as the collecting of one fallen leaf escalates and ends with the complete destruction of the forest! Will Pete realise the error of his ways and set things right?Lush foliage and delightful characters abound in this cautionary tale of overenthusiastic neatness that delivers its message of environmental preservation with subtlety and humour. The freshness of the illustrations and the many comic details make this a very special book. Once you enter this forest, you'll never want to leave.Emily Gravett's engaging woodland creatures will appeal to fans of such classics as The Animals of Farthing Wood and The Wind in the Willows and the rhythmic, rhyming text is perfect for reading aloud.
Too Much Stuff
by Emily GravettFrom the creator of modern classic Meerkat Mail comes a very funny woodland story showing the dangers of having too much stuff. Too Much Stuff is set in the same forest as Gravett’s award-winning Tidy, it features a host of gorgeous woodland animals, including Pete the badger.Meg and Ash are a pair of magpies who are building a nest for their perfect eggs. Although they begin their nest construction using the usual mud, sticks and grass, Meg and Ash are soon convinced that their nest doesn’t have enough stuff and begin to collect more things to add to an ever-growing pile. From cuckoo clocks to mops and socks, a pram and even a car – their need for stuff seems endless. Until – crash! – the inevitable happens.Emily Gravett's engaging, exquisitely illustrated story will appeal to fans of Tidy and of such classics as The Animals of Farthing Wood . The perfect story for young eco-warriors . . . and for everyone.
The Elephants of Thula Thula: Finding peace and happiness with the herd
by Françoise Malby-Anthony‘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 Francoise. 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 The Elephants of Thula Thula. 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.
Haven: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Room
by Emma DonoghueThe hugely anticipated novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Pull of the Stars and Room'Haven is everything a novel should be: compassionate, unpredictable, and questioning. This is Donoghue at her strange, unsettling best.' - Maggie O'Farrell, author of Hamnet'Combines pressure-cooker intensity and radical isolation, to stunning effect.' – Margaret Atwood via TwitterThree men vow to leave the world behind them and start anew . . . In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks – young Trian and old Cormac – he travels down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. Their extraordinary landing spot is now known as Skellig Michael. But in such a place, far from all other humanity, what will survival mean?Haunting, moving and vividly told, Haven displays Emma Donoghue’s trademark world-building and psychological intensity – but this tale is like nothing she has ever written before . . .
Sunrise: Poems to Kick-Start Your Day
by Susie GibbsIf you struggle to get out of bed in the morning, here’s a poetry collection that’s just right for you. Sunrise is an energizing and rousing collection of classic poetry all about purpose, hope and perseverance. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Susie Gibbs.Wise, reassuring words and magical verses conjure up the promise and possibilities of each new day. With contributions from poets such as William Wordsworth, G. K. Chesterton, Ian McMillan, Christina Rossetti, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Edward Lear, the wonderful poetry in Sunrise will inspire its readers to greet each day with optimism and confidence.
Poems About Birds (Macmillan Collector's Library #344)
by H. J. MassinghamCountless writers have been inspired by the beauty of birds – their colours, their easy flight, their lightness and softness, and the grace and whimsicality of their ways. Our literature, especially our poetry, is full of them.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Spanning from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, Poems About Birds captures the enticing lives of birds through the eyes of classic poets. From John Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ to Sylvia Lynd’s ‘The Return of the Goldfinches’, and from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Eagle’ to William Wordsworth’s ‘To The Skylark’, countless varieties of bird are celebrated here. This annotated edition of Poems About Birds selects the very best from H. J. Massingham’s original collection which was first published in 1922.
Embark
by Sean O'BrienA new collection by Sean O’Brien – ‘Auden’s true inheritor’, and one of our wisest poetic chronographers – is not just a literary event, but also, invariably, a reckoning of the times. Given the nature of our times, his voice is an essential one: there is no other poet currently writing with O’Brien’s intellectual authority, historical literacy and sheer command of the facts. Embark also registers our unique cultural climacteric, where the larger crises of the planet – the pandemic and the terrifying spectre of revanchist nationalism among them – impact all of us, and where the illusion of a church-and-state separation of the personal and political can no longer hold. As the poet turns seventy, he shows us how the inevitable absences that age brings are assuaged by how we furnish them; the result is not just a logic made from loss and pain, but a music, a metaphysic, and finally a redemptive art. Embark reminds us of the enduring consolations of love, of friendship, of the freedoms and possible futures still afforded by the imagination – and, through O’Brien’s own exemplary model, of poetry itself.
Nature
by Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBEOne of the English language’s best-loved living poets, in Green: Natural World Carol Ann Duffy presents us with her favourites among her poems on the natural world. Drawing on work written over four decades and arranged chronologically, Duffy also adds to her selection one wholly new poem.
Sea Bean
by Sally HubandA WATERSTONES NATURE AND TRAVEL BEST BOOK OF 2023LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT NATURE WRITING PRIZE 2023'Modern, revealing and restorative, a coastal treasure' Amy Liptrot'Like its talismanic title, Huband's voice is distinct and singular. A gorgeous reckoning with the sea, islands and mythology' Sinéad Gleeson'A wild melding of body and landscape. A deep, immersive, storm-tossed read' Helen Jukes'As vital and complex as the oceans themseleves' Joanna PocockA powerful journey of sea and self, trial and hope on the islands of ShetlandOn the storm-tossed beaches of the Shetland Archipelago, Sally Huband is searching. A message in a bottle, a mermaid’s purse, a lobster trap tag, each find connects her more deeply with our oceans. But it is Sally’s quest for a fabled sea bean that unlocks the myths of these islands and carries her through chronic illness towards a new and more resilient self.
The Slain Birds
by Michael Longley**WINNER OF THE 2022 FELTRINELLI INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE ** 'One of the most perfect poets alive. There is something in his work both ancient and modern. I read him as I might check the sky for stars.' Sebastian BarryMichael Longley's new collection takes its title from Dylan Thomas - 'for the sake of the souls of the slain birds sailing'. The Slain Birds encompasses souls, slayings and many birds, both dead and alive. The first poem laments a tawny owl killed by a car. That owl reappears later in 'Totem', which represents the book itself as 'a star-surrounded totem pole/ With carvings of all the creatures'. 'Slain birds' exemplify our impact on the creatures and the planet. But, in this book's cosmic ecological scheme, birds are predators too, and coronavirus is 'the merlin we cannot see'. Longley's soul-landscape seems increasingly haunted by death, as he revisits the Great War, the Holocaust and Homeric bloodshed, with their implied counterparts today. Yet his microcosmic Carrigskeewaun remains a precarious 'home' for the human family. It engenders 'Otter-sightings, elvers, leverets, poetry'. Among Longley's images for poetry are crafts that conserve or recycle natural materials: carving, silversmithing, woodturning, embroidery. This suggests the versatility with which he remakes his own art. Two granddaughters 'weave a web from coloured strings' and hang it up 'to trap a big idea'. The interlacing lyrics of The Slain Birds are such a web.
Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste
by Eduardo GarciaWhat if we could help to save our planet through small habit changes in our homes? Learn what you can do right now to live a greener life your carbon footprint with this inspiring, accessible, stunningly illustrated book based on Eduardo Garcia's popular New York Times column.Award-winning climate journalist Eduardo Garcia offers a deeply researched and user-friendly guide to the things we can do every day to fight climate change. Based on his popular New York Times column "One Thing You Can Do," this fully illustrated book proposes simple solutions for an overwhelming problem. No lectures here - just accessible and inspiring ideas to slash emissions and waste in our daily lives, with over 350 explanatory illustrations by talented painter Sara Boccaccini Meadows.In each chapter, Garcia digs into the issue, explaining how everyday choices lead to carbon emissions, then delivers a wealth of 'Things You Can Do' to make a positive impact, such as:- Eat a climate-friendly diet - Reduce food waste- Save energy at home- Adopt zero-waste practicesPrinted on environmentally-friendly paper and delivering a decisive hit of knowledge with every turn of the page, Things You Can Do is the book for people who want to know more - and do more - to save the planet.
The Darkness Manifesto: How light pollution threatens the ancient rhythms of life
by Johan EklöfThe Darkness Manifesto urges us to cherish darkness for the sake of the environment, our own wellbeing, and all life on earth.Entire ecosystems rely on natural darkness to flourish, from bats and keen-eyed owls capering across the starry sky to the bioluminescent creatures of the deep. But constant illumination has made light pollution a major threat. By extending our day, humans have disrupted the circadian rhythms necessary to sustain all living things.The Darkness Manifesto lifts night's veil to reveal the domino effect of damage we inflict by keeping the lights on: insects failing to reproduce, plants left unpollinated, countless hunting and migratory patterns eroded. Eye-opening and ultimately encouraging, this book offers simple steps that can benefit ourselves and the planet.'Powerful ... A clarion call for change' New Statesman 'A pleasure to read ... A paean of praise for natural darkness' Financial Times, Book of the Year 'A must-read for all who have an interest in the health of our planet' Russell Foster, author of Life Time
Nightwalking: Four Journeys into Britain After Dark
by John Lewis-Stempel'Britain's finest living nature writer' THE TIMES'Lewis-Stempel's greatest gift remains his prose, with all its vividness and energy' THE DAILY MAIL'The hottest nature writer around' THE SPECTATORAt night, the normal rules of Nature do not apply. In the night-wood I have met a badger coming the other way, tipped my cap, said hello. The animals do not expect us humans to be abroad in the dark, which is their time, when the world still belongs to them.That was in winter. The screaming of a tawny owl echoed off the bare trees. For all of our street-lamp civilization, you can still hear the call of the wild. If, if, you go out after the decline of the day...As the human world settles down each evening, nocturnal animals prepare to take back the countryside. Taking readers on four walks through the four seasons, acclaimed nature writer and farmer John Lewis-Stempel reveals a world bursting with life and normally hidden from view. Out beyond the cities, it is still possible to see the night sky full of stars, or witness a moonbow, an arch of white light in the heavens.It is time for us to leave our lairs and go tramping. To join our fellow creatures of the night.
Taking Liberties: ‘Everyone should be reading her’ Observer
by Leontia FlynnFrom one of Ireland's most important poets, a collection about motherhood at a time of continuous crisis'The real thing' MICHAEL LONGLEY'Everyone should be reading her' OBSERVERThese poems emerge from the experience of being a single mother in Belfast, and against a background of seemingly continuous crisis. Political upheaval and anxiety, violence and death are all registered in these poems, which ask questions about where independence is balanced by our relationships with others, and where our inner lives meet the globally connected world.These are poems about cities - living, travelling and working in cities, getting sick and dying in cities - but also about retreating from all that: to her daughter at home, the budgie, cat and tortoise, or escaping to the park, the municipal pool, the Irish countryside, Newfoundland, or Paris, or into a Nina Simone song.This is a necessary book - a book very much of our time - with a consistent tone that is brave and bleak, but which also carries with it some much-needed humour, and a wealth of beautiful writing.
Deep Blue: My Ocean Journeys
by Steve BackshallTake a deep breathSteve Backshall was nine years old the first time he saw a shark, while on holiday with his family in Malaysia. It was the beginning of a life-long fascination with these 'lords of the sea', and the oceanic life around them. His career as one of the world's most popular naturalists and explorers has taken him to countless underwater places, many never before seen by others. And he's also been witness to the startling decline in fortune of our oceans' wild inhabitants over the past fifty years.Deep Blue is a book a lifetime in the making: a remarkable blend of memoir, travel, and marine and environmental science that takes us on an unforgettable tour of the many worlds of aquatic life: from underwater deserts and rainforests to the evolution of ocean heroes like the sea turtle and the Great White, from the genesis of ocean life to the rapidly declining state of white polar seas and coral reefs. It's both a love letter to our precious oceans and rallying cry for what we must to do save them.