English Pastoral by James Rebanks

$35.00 AUD

Category: Nature

The author of the beloved No.1 bestseller The Shepherd's Life returns with a stirring history of family, loss and the land over three generations on a Lake District farm 'A beautifully-written story of a family, a home and a changing landscape.' - Nigel Slater 'Just about perfect.' - Wendell Berry Ja mes Rebanks was taught by his grandfather 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, that landscape had profoundly changed. 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 how the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost. But 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 the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all.   ...Show more

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

$35.00 AUD

Category: Nature

Animals don't exist to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves. From the internationally acclaimed author of H is for Hawk comes Vesper Flights, a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to th e natural world. In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved pieces, along with new essays on topics and stories ranging from nostalgia and science fiction to the true account of a refugee's flight to the UK. Her pieces ranges from accounts of swan upping on the Thames to watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary to seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk's poplar forests. She writes about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds' nests, what we do when we watch wildlife and why. This is a book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make the world around us, by one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers. ...Show more

Turning the Boat for Home by Richard Mabey

$39.99 AUD

Category: Nature

For five decades Richard Mabey has been a pioneering voice in modern nature writing. From the rediscovery of foraging that led to Food for Free, through his groundbreaking expeditions in the 'edgelands' in the 1970s, to his reflections on the musicality of bird-song, he has consistently explored new way s of thinking about nature and its relation to our lives. In Turning the Boat for Home, he introduces pieces from his rich writing life that reflect on how his ideas evolved. At the heart is a passionate belief that Earth is a commonwealth, of all species. Mabey recalls the fight against the commercial afforestation of the Scottish peatlands and recounts the experience of running a 'community woodland', one of the first in Britain. Plants, the organisms that underpin all life, have been a source of constant fascination. In his encyclopaedic Flora Britannica Mabey explored how deeply they are embedded in our popular culture. But they are also autonomous beings with their own agendas, as experienced in his own 'serendipitous' garden 'in which wild organisms improvise their own landscapes'. From a new viewpoint, 'the slow-moving carapace' of a boat on the Norfolk Broads, Mabey ponders the migration of geese and the home-loving whirligig beetles. His epiphany is that a sense of "neighbourliness" may be the best model for our relationship with the rest of the living world. Throughout there is a commitment to writing and to language, which may be 'our greatest ecological gift'. In a celebration that links the work of the poet John Clare with the political warnings of Rachel Carson, Mabey suggests that 'the answer to the still present threat of a silent spring is for us to sing against the storm.' ...Show more

On the Red Hill: Where Four Lives Fell Into Place by Mike Parker

$35.00 AUD

Category: Nature

A multi-layered memoir of love, acceptance, finding home and the redemptive power of nature.In the early 2000s Mike Parker and his partner Peredur (Preds) moved into a small village in remote West Wales. A few weeks after arriving, they met Reg and George, a couple for over sixty years, who had arrived in the village at a time when their relationship could have landed them in prison. The four men became acquaintances, and over the years, firm friends. When Reg and George died, within a few weeks of each other, Mike and Preds discovered that they had been left their home- a whitewashed 'house from the children?s stories?, buried deep within the hills. All four men had arrived at the house following different paths. All four shouldn't have stayed. But they did. On the Red Hilltells the story of Rhiw Goch, the Red Hill, but also the story of a community, and of a remarkable relationship blossoming against the backdrop of rural life. On The Red Hillcelebrates the ebb and flow of seasons, of ever-changing landscapes, and the family (both beloved and infuriating) that you find when you least expect it. Taking the four seasons, the four elements and four extraordinary individuals as his structure, Mike Parker creates a lyrical but clear-eyed exploration of the natural world, one?s place in it, and what it means to find a home. ...Show more

Written in Stone : Reading the Rocks of the Great Ocean Road by Philomena Manifold

$49.95 AUD

Category: Nature

Good Dog by Kate Leaver

$29.99 AUD

Category: Nature

Good Dog is about the power of canine friendship - in particular the profoundly healing role that dogs can play in our lives - a celebration of the extraordinary creatures who change - and sometimes even save - our lives.  Covering the science and history of our extraordinary relationship wit h dogs, and focusing on the role that dogs can play in enriching and improving our mental and emotional health and our lives, Good Dog is a celebration of the most remarkable cross-species friendship on the planet. Good Dog focuses on ten powerful, personal stories of dogs and their owners, from Missy the pug, who has allowed 10-year-old autistic Cody to live his best life to Darcy, who spends precious time in a children's hospice; from Pip, who helps her teenage owner manage her diabetes, to Jingles, who works in therapy and rehab at a prison.    ...Show more

Owls: Journeys Around the World by David Hollands

$35.00 AUD

Category: Nature

David Hollands first became aware of owls as a young boy upon hearing the quavering hoot of the Tawny Owl which lived, out of sight, in the woods near his home. Their secrets remained undiscovered but then he came across some spectral Barn Owls in an ancient English barn. These were the first owls that he had watched at close quarters and photographed in the night. It was a magical experience and, by then, that first awareness had progressed and become a lifelong passion. David Hollands came to Australia in 1961and for a while, the demands of running a medical practice put a brake on other activities. Nevertheless, his fascination for birds, owls and photography could never remain submerged for long and, in 1999, he completed 'Birds of the Night' - a comprehensive study in words and photographs of Australia's owls, frogmouths and nightjars. However, David's owl studies continued. There were owls to be pursued around the world and he set out to find and photograph as many as possible. By his own admission, he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. The author's love of birds extends beyond owls and he has also written books on Australia's Birds of Prey and on Kingfishers and Kookaburras. All three books won the Whitley Award for the Best Illustrated Australian Natural History book of that year. ...Show more

On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason; Lytton Smith (Translator)

$34.99 AUD

Category: Nature

A unique approach to climate change that recalls W. G. Sebald.

Mama's Last Hug by Frans de Waal

$22.99 AUD

Category: Nature

A groundbreaking, approachable book on the role of emotions in animal and human societies, from the world-renowned primatologist and author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Losing Eden - Why Our Minds Need the Wild by Lucy Jones

$39.99 AUD

Category: Nature

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 we need communion with the wild to feel well. Now, in the moment of our gre at migration away from the rest of nature, more and more scientific evidence is emerging to confirm its place at the heart of our psychological wellbeing. So what happens, asks acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world--might we also be losing part of ourselves? Delicately observed and rigorously researched, Losing Eden is an enthralling journey through this new research, exploring how and why connecting with the living world can so drastically affect our health. Travelling from forest schools in East London, to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, via Poland's primeval woodlands, Californian laboratories and ecotherapists' couches, Jones takes us to the cutting edge of human biology, neuroscience and psychology, and discovers new ways of understanding our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the earth. Urgent and uplifting, Losing Eden is a rallying cry for a wilder way of life - for finding asylum in the soil and joy in the trees - which might just help us to save the living planet, as well as ourselves, from a future of ecological grief. ...Show more

Trees (Gift Edition): Between Earth and Heaven by Art Wolfe (By (photographer))

$49.99 AUD

Category: Nature

Art Wolfe's immersive photos capture the wonder humans have felt about trees for millennia. From the ancient Assyrian Tree of Life to the Iroquois peoples' Tree of Peace, trees have played an archetypal role in human culture and spirituality since time immemorial. An integral part of a variety of faith s--from Buddhism and Hinduism to Nordic and aboriginal religions--trees were venerated long before any written historical records existed. This sense of reverence and wonder is beautifully evoked in these vivid images from legendary photographer Art Wolfe. The new, giftable format of his celebrated book on the topic, Trees, focuses on both individual specimens and entire forests, offering a sweeping yet intimate look at an arboreal world that spans six continents. To accompany these timeless images, author Gregory McNamee weaves a diverse and global account of the myths, cultures, and traditions that convey the long-standing symbiosis between trees and humans, and renowned ethnobotanist Wade Davis anchors the text with a penetrating introduction. Humans have always shared this planet with trees, and this book is both a breathtaking journey through and an homage to that relationship and its past, present, and future--now in a new, beautiful, and highly giftable format. ...Show more

The Seafarers - A Journey among Birds by Stephen Rutt

$22.99 AUD

Category: Nature

'A beautifully illuminating portrait of lives lived largely on the wing and at sea' - Julian Hoffman, author of Irreplaceable and The Small Heart of Things The British Isles are remarkable for their extraordinary seabird life: spectacular gatherings of charismatic Arctic terns, elegant fulmars and stoi c eiders, to name just a few. In 2015, Stephen Rutt escaped his hectic, anxiety-inducing life in London for the bird observatory on North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of the Orkney Islands. In thrall to these windswept havens and the people and birds that inhabit them, he began a journey to the edges of Britain. From Shetland, to the Farnes of Northumberland, down to the Welsh islands off the Pembrokeshire coast, he explores the part seabirds have played in our history and what they continue to mean to Britain today.   The Seafarers is the story of those travels: a love letter, written from the rocks and the edges, for the salt-stained, isolated and ever-changing lives of seabirds. It reveals what it feels like to be immersed in a completely wild landscape, examining the allure of the remote in an over-crowded world.  ...Show more