Showing titles in Ecosystems & Habitats

Brought to you by Penguin. A powerful journey of sea and self, trial and hope on the islands of Shetland When a seed falls from a vine in the tropics and is carried by ocean currents across the Atlantic to the shores of Western Europe - it is known as a sea bean. It is still considered lucky to...

In January 2006, a month or two after my father died, I thought I saw him again - a momentary impression of an old man, a little stooped, setting off for a walk in his characteristic fawn corduroys and shabby quilted jacket. After teenage rifts it was walking that brought us closer as father and son, and this ghost of Dad has been walking at my elbow since his death, as I have ruminated on his great love of walking, his prodigious need to do it - and how and why I walk myself.

The hare, a night creature and country dweller, is a rare sight for most people. We know them only from legends and stories. They are shape-shifters, witches’ familiars and symbols of fertility. They are arrogant, as in Aesop’s 'The Tortoise and the Hare', and absurd, as in Lewis Carroll’s Mad March Hare. In the absence of observed facts, speculation and fantasy have flourished. But real hares? What are they like? John Lewis-Stempel explores myths, history and the reality of the hare. 

A book to be listened to for pleasure as well as a practical identification guide, The Edge of the Sea introduces a world of teeming life where the sea meets the land. A new generation of listeners is discovering why Rachel Carson's books have become cornerstones of the environmental and conservation movements.

Interweaving memoir and good old fashioned ice adventure, Kim Stanley Robinson takes readers along on the journeys that have happened before and the journeys that may never happen again. In May of 1911, Robert Scott and the twenty-four men under his command said good-bye to the sun and settled...

Trees are our constant companions. They stand tall above us, shading us from the sun. They breathe in and out, feeding us oxygen. They weather the storms, protecting us from danger. As children we intuitively understand the impact trees have on our lives. We sit beneath their branches, we...

Brought to you by Penguin. The spellbinding new book by the prizewinning writer Kapka Kassabova tells the story of her time with the last moving pastoralists in Europe: a gripping portrayal of human-animal interdependence, and a plea for a different way of living. Living with one of these...

Dive beneath the surface and discover the truth about one of the ocean’s most misunderstood creatures. In The Hidden World of Sharks, author Calven Hurstin takes listeners on a captivating journey into the lives of nature’s most ancient predators. Far from the villains portrayed in movies, sharks are intelligent, adaptable, and essential to the balance of marine life. With stunning detail and accessible science, this book reveals ten powerful truths that will change how you see the sea forever.

The first complete history of Britain’s mountains, capturing their beauty, tragedy and the pivotal role of these dramatic landscapes in the nation’s past and future Britain’s mountains are our grandest and wildest places, their vast openness providing inspiration and escape. But they are...

'A terrific read . . . an outstanding book!' Gary Player and Vivienne Player 'A truly heart-wrenching story, but a must-read for all who value our wild animals and their right to roam free. Grant Fowlds is a Zulu in a white skin and loves the people who hold the key to animal conservation. This...

It is hard to imagine that the busy townscape of South London was once a great wood, stretching almost seven miles from Croydon to Deptford or that, scattered through the suburbs, from Dulwich to Norwood, a number of oak woodlands have survived since before the Norman Conquest. These woods were intensively managed for a thousand years, providing timber for construction, furniture and shipbuilding, and charcoal for London's blacksmiths, kilns and bakeries. Now they afford important green space, a vital habitat for small mammals, birds and insects.

Dr Sean Wensley is an award-winning vet and lifelong naturalist, advocating animal wellbeing around the world. Fusing keen scientific insight with tender meditations on the natural world, Through a Vet's Eyes reveals the injustices which animals experience every day and raises an important question: how can we choose a better life for animals?

'Mind-shifting, heart-lifting' ISABELLA TREE 'Inspiring and essential' ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS 'As entertaining as it is enlightening' INDEPENDENT The majority of the world now lives in some form of urban environment. But as the human footprint of brick, concrete and metal expands, our proximity to...

Russia's forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world's wooded lands. The Oak and the Larch is the first-ever English-language exploration of this vast expanse—a dazzling environmental history of Russia that offers an urgent new understanding of the nature of Russian power, and of Russia's ideas of itself.

How deep do sharks swim? Have more people been into space than the deep ocean? And what effect are we having on the health of our seas? In Ask an Ocean Explorer, marine biologist of over 20 years and advisor for the BBC's Blue Planet II, Dr Jon Copley, explains the science and wonder of the deep ocean. 

The world is changing at a relentless pace. How can we slow down and act from a place of respect for all living things? The Sacred Balance shows us how.

A riveting manifesto for the millions of people who long to forge a more vital, meaningful connection to the natural world to live a better, more fulfilling life Looking around at the world today—a world of skyscrapers, super highways, melting ice caps, and rampant deforestation—it is...

Unsere Erde ist ein Wasserplanet. Drei Viertel sind von Wasser bedeckt. Wasser existiert in vielen Formen, ob als Meer, Fluss, See oder als Wolke. Und es ist der Ursprungsort allen Lebens, ein wichtiger Energieträger sowie die wesentliche Voraussetzung für unsere Ernährung. Jedoch scheint es...

There are few more beautiful places than Scotland’s winter mountains. But even when most of the snow has melted, isolated patches can linger well into summer and beyond. In The Vanishing Ice, Iain Cameron chronicles these remarkable and little-seen relics of the Ice Age, describing how they have fascinated travelers and writers for hundreds of years and reflecting on the impact of climate change. Iain was nine years old when snow patches first captured his imagination, and they have been inextricably bound with his life ever since.

Part memoir, part homage to wilderness, Shearwater traces the author’s 50-year obsession with one of nature’s supreme travellers. In the finest tradition of nature writing, Roger Morgan-Grenville, author of Liquid Gold - described by Mary Colwell (Curlew Moon) as ‘a book that ignites joy and warmth’ - unpicks the science behind its incredible journey; and into the story of a year in the shearwater’s life, he threads the inspirational influence of his Hebridean grandmother who instilled in him a love of wild places and wild animals.