Longlisted for The BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2016

Charles Foster wanted to know what it was like to be a beast: a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, a swift. What it was really like. And through knowing what it was like he wanted to get down and grapple with the beast in us all. So he tried it out; he lived life as a badger for six weeks, sleeping in a dirt hole and eating earthworms, he came face to face with shrimps as he lived like an otter and he spent hours curled up in a back garden in East London and rooting in bins like an urban fox. A passionate naturalist, Foster realises that every creature creates a different world in its brain and lives in that world. As humans, we share sensory outputs, lights, smells and sound, but trying to explore what it is actually like to live in another of these worlds, belonging to another species, is a fascinating and unique neuro-scientific challenge. For Foster it is also a literary challenge. Looking at what science can tell us about what happens in a fox's or badger's brain when it picks up a scent, he then uses this to imagine their world for us, to write it through their eyes or rather through the eyes of Charles the beast. An intimate look at the life of animals, neuroscience, psychology, nature writing, memoir and more, it is a journey of extraordinary thrills and surprises, containing wonderful moments of humour and joy, but also providing important lessons for all of us who share life on this precious planet.

Author : Charles Foster

Edition : Profile Books, Paperback, 256 pages

ISBN : 9781781255353

'There is no mystery in this association of woods and otherworlds, for as anyone who has walked the woods knows, they are places of correspondence, of call and answer... Different aspects of the forest link unexpectedly with each other, and so it is that within the stories, different times and worlds can be joined.' - Robert Macfarlane 

An ode to the world around us, the small pockets of wilderness that we sometimes forget to look out for.  A beautifully written invitation to explore and be amazed.  An exploration of connecting layers.

Author : Robert Macfarlane

Edition : Granta, Paperback, 352 pages

ISBN : 9781847080189

23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible

We're not just losing the wild world. We're forgetting it. We're no longer noticing it. We've lost the habit of looking and seeing and listening and hearing.

But we can make hidden things visible, and this book features 23 spellbinding ways to bring the magic of nature much closer to home.

Mammals you never knew existed will enter your world. Birds hidden in treetops will shed their cloak of anonymity. With a single movement of your hand you can make reptiles appear before you. Butterflies you never saw before will bring joy to every sunny day. Creatures of the darkness will enter your consciousness. And as you take on new techniques and a little new equipment, you will discover new creatures and, with them, new areas of yourself that had gone dormant. Once put to use, they wake up and start working again. You become wilder in your mind and in your heart. Once you know the tricks, the wild world begins to appear before you.

For anyone who wants to get closer to the nature all around them and bring it back into focus, this is the perfect read.

Author : Simon Barnes

Edition : Simon and Schuster, Hardback / Paperback, 208 pages

ISBN : 9781471175404 / 9781471175428

Published : 1st November 2018 / 1st June 2020

Weight: 331g / 191g
Dimensions: 135 x 216 x 19mm / 130 x 198 x 15 mm

Tilly Smith looks after a herd of majestic reindeer in the Cairngorms. In this enchanting and beautifully bound book she writes of reindeers’ natural history and shares anecdotes from her own experiences and years of tending these wonderful animals.

Author : Tilly Smith

Edition : The History Press, Hardback, 192 pages

ISBN : 9780750987974