This book has a laudable aim, to wit to nudge us to travel less in cars, but it’s quite a big ambition in a country with poor public transport, and for a leisure activity where some of the best places are out of town and somewhat remote. But here you will find a variety of…
Tag: bloomsbury
Sunday book review – Endemic by James Harding-Morris
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…
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 – Neurodivergent, by Nature by Joe Harkness
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This book is about the relationship between neurodivergent people and the natural world. I found it interesting and probably more interesting than I thought it might be. The author is neurodivergent (diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and does a very good job in explaining, from the start of the book, what are the…
Sunday book review – Urban Plants by Trevor Dines
This book, out of 50 I reviewed in 2025, was my choice of wildlife book of the year. You can buy this book from Bookshop.org and I have set up a booklist to make that easy through this link https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/MarkAvery Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you…
Sunday book review – Rare Plants by Peter Marren
The first thing that strikes you on picking up this book is that it is heavy. That’s what 400 pages of high quality paper feel like. On those 400 pages are high quality images and high quality words from an author who knows how to write and who knows his subject very well. What more…
Sunday book review – Wild Service edited by Nick Hayes and Jon Moses
You should take it as a measure of my fairness that even though I think large parts of this book are poorly argued (hardly argued at all, really) I believe that it is so wonderfully well written, and so exquisitely irritating, that it will certainly be vying for my book of the year for 2024….
Book review – Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons
This is a fine book about a very interesting species. I’ve seen Wild Boar in continental Europe (Netherlands, France and Spain) but not yet in the UK. Decades ago, in the Camargue, I sometimes travelled the roads after dark in a flimsy ancient Citroen Deux-Chevaux and I always thought that any close encounters of…
Sunday book review – The Book of Wilding by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell
This is the bible for rewilders, and a solid tome it is too. The authors are, of course, the very best people in the UK to write such a book as they have ‘done it’ themselves at their estate of Knepp in Sussex. Knepp is a fantastic wildlife success story with rewilded habitats producing impressive…
Sunday book review – Avocado Anxiety by Louise Gray
Louise Gray’s previous book, The Ethical Carnivore was 5th in my books of the year for 2016 (see review here), and this follow-up, also on food, is a contender for a top-10 listing this year, I reckon. Eating fruit and vegetables doesn’t quite have the moral jeopardy attached to it that surrounds eating an animal…