Two books examining the importance of nature on our wellbeing feel all the more vital under lockdown
When the first daffodils were blooming two months ago, the apocalyptic prologue to Lucy Jones’s Losing Eden would have felt urgent enough. It describes a young girl, Xena, wearing goggles and a respirator, walking to her grandmother’s house. Here, they sit together and experience nature – birds singing, trees growing – through a virtual-reality scene. “Why did nature end, Granny?” Xena asks. “We didn’t love it enough,” Granny answers. “And we forgot it could give us peace.”
The subtext here is climate change. But today, with the country in lockdown, and the blossoming world outside feeling more important to us than ever, Jones’s and Jini Reddy’s books take on extra significance.
Jones tells us how much we’ve travelled inwards as human beings, both literally and psychologically
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