February 1, 2022 This Sacred Life: Humanity’s place in a wounded world by Norman Wirzba Review by Peter Reason What does it mean to see the world, and life on Earth, as sacred? How might this change our approach…
January 20, 2022 The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh Review by Peter Reason When I was a small child at primary school, we celebrated Empire Day. Children were invited—expected—to take a Union Flag…
November 9, 2021 Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden by Benedict Macdonald & Nicholas Gates Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Bristol friends and BBC colleagues Ben Macdonald and Nick Gates set out to chronicle a year in the life of…
November 2, 2021 The Dawn of Everything: A new history of humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow Review by Peter Reason This book offers a revision of our understanding of human cultural history, and so opens possibilities for different, maybe more…
October 19, 2021 Light Rains Sometimes Fall: A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Seasons by Lev Parikian Review by Liz Dexter “For Japan’s lotus blossom, praying mantis and bear, we have bramble, wood louse and urban fox” Lev Parikian, a writer,…
September 28, 2021 Two nature memoirs set in the New Forest: Goshawk Summer by James Aldred & The Circling Sky by Neil Ansell By Rebecca Foster Two recent memoirs have shone a spotlight on the fauna and management strategies of the New Forest, a place my Hampshire-raised…
September 14, 2021 The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars, by Simon Morden Review by Annabel Who hasn’t been enthralled by the idea of there being ‘Life on Mars’ even if said life ends up as the…
August 10, 2021 A Tomb With a View by Peter Ross Reviewed by Gill Davies Just a few days ago my partner and fellow Shiny reviewer Basil Ransome Davies found a new walk to do…
July 8, 2021 Smoke Hole: Looking to the wild in the time of the Spyglass by Martin Shaw Review by Peter Reason Martin Shaw is a mythologist, storyteller, and wilderness rites-of-passage guide, a teacher of mythic imagination. Should you encounter him at…
June 8, 2021 On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason Translated by Lytton Smith Review by Peter Reason This book focuses on two things that are changing beyond recognition in this era of rapid…
June 1, 2021 The Nightingale: Notes on a songbird, by Sam Lee Review by Peter Reason Sam Lee is a renowned song collector, interpreter, and singer of folk songs from Britain and Ireland; he has an…
May 25, 2021 Field Work: What Land Does to People and What People Do to Land by Bella Bathurst Review by Liz Dexter “This place, this land, wasn’t a job or a business: it was everything – past and future, identity and rhythm,…
May 21, 2021 Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert Review by Peter Reason Elizabeth Kolbert is a celebrated American journalist, staff writer for the New Yorker. Her work focuses unflinchingly on the ecological…
May 11, 2021 Digging up Britain: A New History in Ten Extraordinary Discoveries by Mike Pitts Reviewed by Liz Dexter “Who are we? Where do we come from? What is Britain, and what does it mean to be British?” This…
March 25, 2021 Notes From Deep Time: A journey through our past and future worlds by Helen Gordon Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Deep time has been a persistent theme in British nonfiction over the last couple of years, showing up in books…
February 25, 2021 Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh Review by Peter Reason I have been totally absorbed in Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s Thin Places since it arrived in the morning mail and I…
January 28, 2021 The Fresh and the Salt: The Story of the Solway by Ann Lingard Reviewed by Peter Reason When I was a small boy—and this memory must reach back to around 1950—I played with a wooden puzzle made…
December 17, 2020 The Stubborn Light of Things by Melissa Harrison & The Consolation of Nature by Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott & Peter Marren By Rebecca Foster The Stubborn Light of Things collects five and a half years’ worth of Melissa Harrison’s monthly Nature Notebook columns for The…
December 15, 2020 Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell Reviewed by Liz Dexter I greatly enjoyed reading Nancy Campbell’s meditation on the icy places of the world, The Library of Ice. last year,…
November 5, 2020 Wintering: A Season With Geese by Stephen Rutt Reviewed by Liz Dexter Stephen Rutt and his partner move to Dumfries, to a flat near the Solway Firth, just as he’s finishing writing…
September 17, 2020 Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal by Sarah Maslin Nir Review by Liz Dexter Sarah Maslin Nir is a staff reporter for the New York Times who, by her own admission, has sought out…
September 15, 2020 Riders on the Storm: The climate crisis and the survival of being by Alastair McIntosh Review by Peter Reason Alastair McIntosh is a Scottish Quaker, peace, community and environmental writer and campaigner, maybe best described as a spiritual activist….
September 8, 2020 The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes Reviewed by Liz Dexter A book that is in turns entertaining, lyrical and shocking, you won’t think about the countryside – or the rivers…
September 3, 2020 Entangled Life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures by Merlin Sheldrake Review by Peter Reason Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake has been greeted with much enthusiasm, not least by Robert Macfarlane in the New Yorker….
August 27, 2020 Antlers of Water: Writing on the Nature and Environment of Scotland, edited by Kathleen Jamie Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Ever since I read Findings sometime around a decade ago I’ve viewed anything with Kathleen Jamie’s name attached to it…
