Stephen Moss is an author and naturalist based in Somerset. Having retired from running the MA Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa University he is now a Visiting Research Fellow there. Stephen’s latest books are the 2023 Wainwright-Prize-shortlisted Ten Birds that Changed the World (Guardian Faber) and The Starling: a Biography (Square Peg), the sixth volume in this bestselling series.
In his twenty-first and final annual round-up, naturalist and author STEPHEN MOSS reveals a selection of his favourite nature, wildlife and environmental books published this year.
[Mark writes: where I have read and reviewed books mentioned by Stephen I have linked to my reviews].
In a world where good news is, let’s be honest, in rather short supply, at least we can seek solace from the natural world – and from a growing cohort of superb writers inspired by nature.
One recent development in the field has been the growing diversity of authors, demonstrated again this year in the shortlists of the three Wainwright Prizes: for Writing on Conservation, Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation, and the original Nature Writing Prize.
The Conservation Prize shortlist included topics as diverse as bringing back lost species, the climate crisis, ‘the dirty truth’ about waste, eco-anxiety, wild boars in Britain and the winner, Helen Czerski’s Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes our World. I really enjoyed the cleverly-titled Groundbreakers: The return of Britain’s wild boar, by Chantal Lyons, and Nature’s Ghosts, by Sophie Yeo, both first time authors with an important story to tell. It’s worth noting the strength in depth of this category, in which Hugh Warwick’s Cull of the Wild, a thought-provoking analysis of the controversies around culling, didn’t even make the shortlist.
No fewer than eight titles were shortlisted for the Children’s Writing Prize, with some familiar names: David Lindo, who joined forces with artist Sara Boccaccini Meadows to produce the delightful Fly: A Child’s Guide to Birds and How to Spot Them, and Isabella Tree, who worked with artist Angela Harding on a child-friendly version of her bestselling book Wilding. The winner was Foxlight by Katya Balen, a charming novel aimed at children of ten years and older.
The original Wainwright Prize – for Nature Writing – was once again both diverse and wide-ranging in authors and subject-matter. Kat Hill’s Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter combines visits to these simple – and free – accommodations for walkers with a thoughtful account of her own life. Jessica J. Lee’s Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging intertwines the global travels – and our ambivalent attitudes towards – both plants and people, including her own story, in a truly original way.
The winner, Michael Malay’s Late Light, also uses the author’s perspective as an ‘insider/outsider’ (an Indonesian Australian who now lives in England), which he cleverly combines with the tales of four often overlooked creatures – eels, moths, crickets and mussels. A word, too, for Alastair Humphreys’ Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness, which proves once again that focusing on close to home can be just as rewarding as travelling far afield.
Talking of local, the British Wildlife Collection from Bloomsbury continues to go from strength to strength, helped by a choice of experts in their field as authors, and striking cover illustrations by the incomparable Carry Akroyd. The two from this year were Hedges, by Robert Wolton and Rare Plants, by one of our most underrated nature writers, Peter Marren. The more established Collins New Naturalist series also published two fascinating volumes, Ponds, Pools and Puddles, by Jeremy Biggs and Penny Williams, and Stoats, Weasels, Martens and Polecats, by Jenny MacPherson – both packed with fascinating detail: authoritative, yet always readable.
The growing realisation that nature is good for us is carefully examined by two academic experts in this important field. Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health, by Kathy Willis (Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford) takes an in-depth look into how nature can improve our day-to-day lives, and presents the evidence in a lively and engaging way. The Blackbird’s Song & Other Wonders of Nature by Miles Richardson (Professor of Human Factors and Nature Connectedness at the University of Derby) uses a simple calendar format to encourage us to connect, or reconnect, with the natural world throughout the year. Both books should be compulsory reading for all politicians, health professionals, educators and, frankly, everyone else.
Homecoming, by the novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison, also uses the calendar year to encourage the reader to keep ‘a guided journal to lead you back to nature’. It would a lovely Christmas gift for anyone you know who is at the start of their lifelong journey through the natural world.
Field guides are the bread-and-butter of any naturalist’s book collection, but with a growing focus on more narrative-based ‘new nature writing’, they don’t always get the attention they deserve. So hats off to my old friend, the prolific and very popular Dominic Couzens. His books this year include The Hidden Life of Garden Birds: The unseen drama behind everyday survival; RSPB Birding Year: Seasonal tips and activities to learn about bird behaviour, co-written with Siân Duncan; A Year of Garden Bees and Bugs: 52 stories of intriguing insects, co-authored with Gail Ashton, who also took the superb photographs, and with lovely illustrations by Lesley Buckingham; and, also with Gail Ashton, An Insect A Day: Bees, bugs, and pollinators for every day of the year, and An ID Guide to Trees of Britain and North-West Europe.
The most eagerly-awaited bird book of the year was the two-part ID Handbook of European Birds, by Nils van Duivendijk. These huge volumes are not designed to be taken into the field, but their superb collection of photographs, and clear and authoritative text, make this an unmissable work of reference for any birder wishing to improve their identification skills.
Two very different studies of individual species caught my eye. The Return of the Grey Partridge: Restoring Nature on the South Downs, by Roger Morgan-Grenville and Edward (the Duke of) Norfolk, not only wins the prize for the most stunning book cover of the year (by Essex-based illustrator Claire Harrup), but is also a superb account of bringing one of our iconic countryside birds back from the brink. Sadly it is now too late for the subject of The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction, by Gísli Pálsson, an Icelandic anthropologist and academic. This tells the tragic story of the permanent loss of this unique seabird, which could so easily have been saved.
Every year I miss a few important books, including three excellent ones published in 2023: the comprehensive and endlessly fascinating British and Irish Butterfly Rarities, by Peter Eeles; The Norfolk Plover A study of the Stone Curlew, by Chris Knights, whose superb photographs enhance his deeply personal story of one of our rarest and most mysterious breeding birds; and (how did I miss this?!) Reflections: what wildlife needs and how to provide it, by my host Mark Avery. As ever, he provides a clear-sighted explanation of what has gone wrong in our countryside and how we might reverse the current declines.
Before I reveal my book of the year, it’s time to say a fond farewell. This is my 21st annual round-up – initially (from 2004 to 2017) for the Guardian, when coincidentally the very first book I recommended was Dominic Couzens’s The Secret Lives of Garden Birds. When the Guardian’s editors, in their infinite (lack of) wisdom, decided that the natural world was no longer relevant to their readers, Mark kindly stepped in, so from 2018 onwards I have appeared here on his blog.
It’s been great fun, and I have learned a huge amount from my fellow authors. I’d like to thank them, their publishers and especially the independent booksellers who keep plugging – and selling – our works in these tough economic times. And a special thank you to Mark, who I have known and admired since we first met almost fifty years ago!
I hope that he and I can hand the baton onto someone from the new generation of nature writers, to carry on this Christmas tradition. Maybe, if I am very lucky, they might even feature one of my own books!
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Finally, my choice for Book of the Year 2024 is a truly epic work. The Story of Nature: A Human History, by Jeremy Mynott, is a truly broad-brush history of our relationship with the natural world: past, present and future. Mynott wears his immense learning lightly, and with his own deep curiosity, guides the reader through the millennia, in a truly informative and compelling way.
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