Oliver Sacks's final writings begin to appear
With tributes still coming in for the late neurologist and author, some of his last journalistic work is being publishedOne of the final articles by the late Oliver Sacks, the acclaimed neurologist and...
View ArticleNaomi Klein on climate change: 'I thought it best to write about my own raw...
A Q&A with the bestselling author before her visits to Melbourne and SydneyNaomi Klein, the Canadian author, film-maker and social activist, will arrive in Australia this month for a series of...
View ArticleTea with Oliver Sacks: Will Self, Andrew Solomon and Sue Halpern pay tribute
The death of Oliver Sacks this week made headlines, some of them surprising. Three writers pay tribute to an ardent observer, whose literary portraits of his patients are rich in compassion, insight...
View ArticleThe Bundian Way: ancient Aboriginal trail, future great Australian bushwalk
Australia’s highest point – Mount Kosciuszko – links to coastal NSW via a 365km track filled with scenic views and Aboriginal heritage. The man who has been walking the Bundian Way for more than a...
View ArticleVoices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins...
A feelgood account of an encounter with dolphins, and their amazing abilities, darkens into a chronicle of their devastating treatment at the hands of mankindDolphins are sexy beasts. I was once caught...
View ArticleMaking the weather in English writing and art
From icy ground gleaming in early literature to our idea of a data cloud … the portrayals of weather in different eras are full of surprisesOn the last night of the 18th century, the heroine of...
View ArticleThe most romantic creature in the animal kingdom? Well, it’s not the...
Animal sex expert Carin Bondar on baboons who use contraception and the strange habits of hermaphroditesHow did you get into the topic of animal sex?I was at home having my children. I was in a very...
View ArticleWeatherland: Writers & Artists Under English Skies review – it’s not always...
Former Guardian first book award winner Alexandra Harris widens her scope with this study of the relationship of artists and writers with sun, wind and snow“My subject is not the weather itself,”...
View ArticleAdventures in the Anthropocene by Gaia Vince – review
Gaia Vince’s ambitious, all-embracing, compelling journey holds a mirror up to humanity’s epoch to reveal all we have destroyed, but may yet be able to saveUN scholars have calculated that within the...
View ArticleThe Company of Trees by Thomas Pakenham review – memoir of an intrepid tree...
From seed-hunting expeditions in the Andes to grim encounters with the timber trade, this memoir of an intrepid tree obsessive stands tallFew have ever indulged their inclinations on a grander scale...
View ArticleIndustrial farming is one of the worst crimes in history
The fate of industrially farmed animals is one of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. Tens of billions of sentient beings, each with complex sensations and emotions, live and die on a...
View ArticleGaia Vince: humans have caused untold damage to the planet
The new winner of the Winton prize for science books says humanity has become a geophysical force on a par with earth-shattering asteroids and planet-cloaking volcanoesWe live in epoch-making times....
View ArticleGaia Vince, Oliver Morton and the verdict on Morrissey – books podcast
We find out what Morrissey's novel tells us about this charming man, catch up with Royal Society prizewinner Gaia Vince and hear Oliver Morton's plans for reshaping the planet Continue reading...
View ArticleThe wonders of unspoilt seas – in pictures
National Geographic explorer Enric Sala founded a project to find, explore, and protect the few remaining wild places in our oceans. Partnering with Leonardo DiCaprio, he’s already inspired world...
View ArticleThe wild beauty of a threatened world – in pictures
Gaia Vince’s Adventures in the Anthropocene has won the Royal Society Winton science book of the year for its account of her travels through an endangered planet. Nick Pattinson captured her journey in...
View ArticleWeatherland by Alexandra Harris review – are seasons and colours the same for...
How does the weather affect us? This is a splendid history of writers’ and painters’ reflections on the wind, rain and sunI learned this poem by Christina Rossetti when I was a very small child. I...
View ArticleA Message from Martha by Mark Avery review – the story of the last passenger...
There were once 10bn in the US alone, but the last bird died in Cincinatti Zoo in 1914. This entertaining road trip develops into a heartfelt conservationist pleaThe passenger pigeon was once the...
View ArticleSteven Pinker: 'Many of the alleged rules of writing are actually superstitions'
Bad English has always been with us, but clarity and style are far more important than observing dusty usage diktatsPeople often ask me why I followed my 2011 book on the history of violence, The...
View ArticleSeven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli review – a curious paean to...
The theoretical physicist untangles seven topics in a short book that works best when it doesn’t delve too deepWhen I was a kid, my mother would sneak brussels sprouts on to my plate. I hated those...
View ArticleTim Winton's Island Home isn't memoir, it's a cultural call to arms
Australian minds have been colonised in the same way as our landscape, Winton argues in his latest book, but country is calling us homeTim Winton’s new book, Island Home, is a meditation on the places...
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