Reviewed by Jonathan Wallace. Seen from space we are the Blue Planet. About 70% of the planet’s surface is covered by oceans and these waters are fundamental to life on Earth. The oceans were the cradle in which life began and they remain the home for vast numbers of species. They are also vital…
Category: Book review
Sunday book review – Nature Notes by Tim Deane
This is a compilation of quarterly articles which appeared in The Organic Grower between 2009 and 2021. The author is, or was, an organic farmer in south Devon. We often hear that farmers are stewards of the countryside and all that lives there – well a better case for that can be made for organic…
Sunday book review – The Last of Its Kind by Gisli Palsson
This is a heavily revised and expanded English translation of a book published in Icelandic in 2020. The translator, Anna Yates, is to be thanked, along with the author and publisher, for making such an interesting book accessible to English readers. I’m interested in extinction and the Great Auk is a famous extinction. Of course,…
Sunday book review – The Lie of the Land by Guy Shrubsole
This is Guy Shrubsole’s best book yet, despite the success of his excellent Who Owns England (reviewed here) and his book about soggy, slippery woods, The Lost Rainforests of Britain (reviewed here) because this book is about everything! It covers a lot of ground, all of it, because it is about land use and who…
Sunday book review – The Volunteers by Carol Donaldson
This is the story of the relationships between the author and a team of conservation volunteers. It is a tender account of those relationships and has some very, very well-written and moving passages. I liked it a lot. However, although these are conservation volunteers, nature is the backdrop to this book rather than a leading…