Showing titles in Environmentalists & Naturalists

Native woodland is one of the most valuable resources for biodiversity in Ireland’s wet climate. Yet Ireland has the lowest forest cover of any part of Europe, with the surviving native woodland covering a tiny area of the country. Ireland lost the majority of its ancient forest centuries ago, but now is when we need it most to help solve the climate crisis. This audiobook is a celebration of Ireland’s native woodlands blended with a personal account of learning to manage a single small wood over a typical year.

Immerse yourself in the serene and reflective world of Walden by Henry David Thoreau, narrated by Gary Middleton. This timeless literary classic chronicles Thoreau’s two years living in a simple cabin near Walden Pond, exploring themes of self-reliance, nature, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. Through his philosophical insights and poetic descriptions of the natural world, Thoreau invites readers to reflect on the essentials of existence and the beauty of simplicity.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2021 BY THE NEW YORKER AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “[Warmth] is lyrical and erudite, engaging with science, activism, and philosophy . . . [Sherrell] captures the complicated correspondence between hope and doubt, faith and despair—the pendulum of emotional states that...

In 1845 Henry David Thoreau, one of the principal New England Transcendentalists, left the town for the country. Beside the lake of Walden, he built himself a log cabin and returned to nature, to observe and reflect, while surviving on $8 a year. From this experience emerged one of the great classics of American literature, a deeply personal reaction against the commercialism and materialism that he saw as the main impulses of mid-19th century America.

Hailed as a “worthy successor” to John McPhee (Kirkus Reviews), Ben Weissenbach —a digital native with little prior wilderness experience—embarks on a series of scientific adventures across the wilds of Alaska with some of the state's most distinguished and audacious researchers. At the...

Part of John Muir's appeal to modern audiences is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Here collected are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, ranging in subject matter from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the High Sierra.

Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to only a handful of people, is a harsh and lonely place. So when James Campbell's cousin Heimo Korth asked him to spend a summer building a cabin in the rugged Interior, Campbell hesitated about inviting his 15-year-old daughter, Aidan, to join him. Would she be able to withstand clouds of mosquitoes, the threat of grizzlies, bathing in an ice-cold river, and hours of grueling labor peeling and hauling logs? But once there, Aidan embraced the wild.

Alysia Vasey's earliest memories are of walking alongside her grandfather as they explored the West Yorkshire moors that they called home. As an adult, this love for wild things stayed with her, even as she learnt that her family's knowledge of edible plants were a legacy of a much darker time during the Second World War. After leaving Yorkshire in search of adventure, Alysia was eventually guided home by her motto: be true to yourself and you will become the person you were meant to be. 

Raymond Ditmars (1876-1942), the first curator of reptiles at New York's famous Bronx Zoo, brought cold-blooded animals to public attention as never before. Through wildly successful books and movies, he inspired a generation of zoologists with his fascination for snakes, insects, and other misunderstood creatures. Ditmars was among the most celebrated naturalists in America. His reptile-collecting trips for the zoo spawned newspaper headlines across the world.

'This is my earliest memory. I am three years old and I sit in the bottom of my great-uncle's pot boat and take off the bands from the lobsters' claws. The deepest of blues, they creak over the bilges with robotic limbs towards my father's bare feet as he rows. Over the scent of the herring bait...

The incredible—and improbable—story of how an English eccentric saved Japan’s beloved cherry blossoms from extinction. Collingwood Ingram—known as “Cherry” for his defining passion—was born in 1880 and lived until he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of conflict and...

Winner of the BC National Award for Non-Fiction A tree planter's vivid story of a unique subculture and the magical life of the forest. Charlotte Gill spent twenty years working as a tree planter in the forests of Canada. During her million-tree career, she encountered hundreds of clearcuts...

'Fascinating' Observer 'Engrossing' i News 'Elegant' Sunday Telegraph 'Profound and poignant' Sunday Post 'Remarkable and complex' George McGavin A memoir and investigation exploring loss, community and the climate crisis in the Shetland Islands by environmental journalist Marianne Brown. How do...

A magnificent and empowering memoir about a woman spearheading a global initiative to heal the world's rainforests and the communities who depend on them. When Kinari Webb first travelled to Indonesian Borneo at 21, she was both awestruck by the beauty of her surroundings and heartbroken by the rainforest destruction she witnessed. As she got to know the local communities, she realised that their need to pay for expensive healthcare led directly to rampant logging, which in turn imperilled their health and safety further.

Essayist. Preservationist. Mountain man. Inventor. John Muir may be California’s best-known icon. A literary naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park, Muir left his legacy on the landscape and on paper. But the celebrity of John Muir does not tell the whole story. In Essential Muir, for the first time, Muir's selected writings include those that show his ecological vision without ignoring his racism, providing a more complete portrait of the man.

The months of pregnancy have emotional, physical, mental and sensory aspects. A healthy coordination of all four is important to make it a pleasant experience.Garbha Vidya, the groundbreaking technique developed by Dr Andal Bhaskar and Dr S. Bhaskar, is a practice rooted in Indian tradition...

Sir Peter Scott had a truly incredible life. He was the only son of legendary explorer Captain Scott. His godfather was J. M. Barrie, and he was married to Elizabeth Jane Howard. He also represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at sailing in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal. He founded the Wildfoul and Wetlands Trust and also helped to found the Worldwide Fund for Nature. This is a beautiful and timely re-discovered book, perfect for those who are interested in preserving our planet.

More than any other individual, James Stevenson-Hamilton can be credited with the creation of the Kruger National Park in South Africa. In 1902, when the South African War ended, Stevenson-Hamilton swapped his military career for the more uncertain calling of a game warden. Under his supervision the small, neglected and war-ravaged Sabi Game Reserve expanded in stature and size. By the time he retired in 1946, the Kruger National Park had become one of the great national parks of the world.

Alone on a small Missouri farm after a thirty-year marriage, Sue Hubbell found a new love—of the winged, buzzing variety. Left with little but the commercial beekeeping and honey-producing business she started with her husband, Hubbell found solace in the natural world. Then she began to write, challenging herself to tell the absolute truth about her life and the things she cared about. Describing the ups and downs of beekeeping from one springtime to the next, A Country Year transports listeners to a different, simpler place.

Georg Forster drang in die entferntesten Regionen der bekannten Welt vor und stellte mit seinen radikalen Ideen zu Menschlichkeit, Gleichheit und Freiheit die Denkweisen des 18. Jahrhunderts infrage. Andrea Wulf zeichnet das Porträt eines brillanten, unerschrockenen jungen Mannes, der mit 17 Jahren an Cooks zweiter Weltumsegelung teilnahm – einer Reise zwischen der eisigen Antarktis und den üppigen Inselwelten des Südpazifiks. Dort erforschte er Natur, Menschen und Kulturen und brachte einen tiefen Glauben an die Gleichheit der Menschen zurück, der seiner Zeit weit voraus war.