Endemic species are those found (in the wild) only in a particular area, so Britain’s endemic species are those found in Britain and nowhere else (in the wild at least). Such species are interesting as indicators of the workings of evolution since the last ice age and are ones whose futures lie entirely in our…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – The Book of Bogs edited by Anna Chilvers and Clare Shaw
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This book grew locally in West Yorkshire in response to Walshaw Moor’s landscape and wildlife and to the threat to it from a proposal to build an enormous windfarm on its deep peat soils. But although many of the writings collected here, some previously published elsewhere, relate to this moor, most famously the Wuthering Heights…
Sunday book review – The Highland Cow and the Horse of the Woods by Roy Dennis
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This is the latest wonderful book by the wonderful Roy Dennis. I have reviewed three of them here; Cottongrass Summer (my book of the year in 2020, click here), Restoring the Wild (click here for review) and Mistletoe Winter (shortlisted as a book of the year for 2021 (click here)). I reckon this book is…
Sunday book review – Just Earth by Tony Juniper
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Tony Juniper is arguably the leading UK environmentalist of his generation so his latest title raises hopes and expectations. This is, in my opinion, his best book and provides a detailed analysis of our failure to make enough progress with environmental issues such as biodiversity loss and climate change. He provides a compelling argument for…
Sunday book review – Life Changing by David North
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This is a gorgeous book – the most gorgeous book that I have read this year. David North and the design team at Mascot Media are to be congratulated on the sheer beauty of what they have produced. Cley and Salthouse marshes are on the north Norfolk Coast at its northernmost point and have long…
Sunday book review – Forgotten Forests by Jonathan Mullard
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I’ve been meaning to review this book for weeks as I’ve had it on my desk for what seems an age. I don’t know why I didn’t get round to it earlier but I’m glad I finally did because I enjoyed it very much. We are taken in a dozen chronological chapters from the end…
Sunday book review – Love, Anger & Betrayal by Jonathon Porritt
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Jonathan Porritt was working for environmental improvement long before the birth of any of the young climate campaigners given a voice in this book. Indeed, before some of their parents! I found this a moving book. Many Just Stop Oil campaigners, often in their twenties, talk about their lives, beliefs, campaigns, fears and struggles. It’s…
Sunday book review – Bugwatching by Eric R. Eaton
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I’ve done a lot of bug-watching so far this year. One of my favourites is the Dock Bug. This small book (180 pages) is packed with enthusiasm which might rub off on those who have not yet discovered the joy of bugwatching. The subtitle discloses the fact that this is a book produced in North…
Sunday book review – The Game of Species by Julian Simon Lopez-villalta
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This slim volume of little more than 100 pages addresses the big questions of life on Earth. Not, ‘Shall we go to the pub?’ but ‘Why are there so many species and why are there more in some places than others?’. The author is a proper biologist and he writes this book to explain how…
Sunday book review – A Brush with Fungi by David Mitchell
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This is a big book full of beauty. It has over 400 A4 pages of paintings of over 250 UK fungi. And every one of those pages holds the eye because of the amazing complexity of the fungi and the artist’s skill. From Scarlet Waxcap to Warlock’s Butter, and from Giant Puffball to Lemon Disco,…