Wainwright nature writing prize goes to ‘inspirational’ Goshawk Summer
Wildlife cameraman James Aldred’s diary of time spent observing a family of goshawks in the New Forest takes top honourWildlife cameraman James Aldred, who has collaborated with David Attenborough, has...
View ArticleIn brief: Love Untold; The Modern Bestiary; The Red Planet – review
Ruth Jones’s Welsh generational saga, Joanna Bagniewska’s real-life fantastic beasts and Simon Morden’s Mars exploration Love UntoldRuth JonesBantam,£20, pp416Actor and author Ruth Jones’s third novel...
View ArticleLandlines by Raynor Winn review – back on the trail
The author of The Salt Path returns with another heartwarming odyssey, this time on one of the wildest walks in Britain“I’m not really sure why I’m here, lying in a bin-bag on the side of a hill, but...
View ArticleFen, Bog & Swamp by Annie Proulx review – where have all our wetlands gone?
In beautiful prose, the Pulitzer-winning US novelist offers a powerful indictment of human complicity in environmental destructionHunter S Thompson once said that to get at the truth, especially about...
View ArticleAn Intimate History of Evolution by Alison Bashford review – Darwin’s outriders
A sprawling history of the illustrious Huxley family charts the evolution of science and society over 200 yearsCharles Darwin was, by all accounts, a meek and conflict-averse man. In his written work...
View ArticleTop 10 nature memoirs | Sarah Thomas
Moving on from writing that holds the natural world at arm’s length, authors have begun using intimate life to show nature as a protagonist in itselfThe lockdowns of 2020/2021 galvanised and expanded a...
View ArticleNature’s Wild Ideas by Kristy Hamilton review – brilliant biomimcry
From socks based on a giraffe’s leg to a bottle like a beetle’s bottom – how the natural world inspires scientific innovationWhat do a beetle’s backside, a lotus leaf and a giraffe’s leg have in...
View ArticleThe Golden Mole and Other Living Treasure by Katherine Rundell review
From bears to bats to hermit crabs, a witty, intoxicating paean to Earth’s wondrous creaturesI was once taught a rhyme in case I met a bear: “Bear brown, lie down; bear black, fight back.” In The...
View ArticleThe Golden Mole and Other Living Treasure by Katherine Rundell review – weird...
The award-winning children’s author’s enthusiasm for astonishing and imperilled animals is infectiousKatherine Rundell is a scholar, a fabulous writer and a born enthusiast. These qualities were on...
View ArticleBreathless by David Quammen review – an expert eye on Covid’s past and future
The veteran science writer brings a naturalist’s eye to the complexities of viruses and the tangle of conspiracy theories in his thoroughly readable guideCovid-19 is the first pandemic in which...
View Article‘It is a flaw in our cells that becomes a flaw in love’: doctor Siddhartha...
When the oncologist and bestselling author of The Gene found himself drowning in a tide of sadness, he instinctively looked to cells for an explanation. Did the answers lie in the brain?In the spring...
View ArticleSiddhartha Mukherjee: ‘I don’t like writing as if I don’t exist’
The Pulitzer-winning science author on combining the history of cell biology with personal stories, the influence of Salman Rushdie and why he likes to write in bedSiddhartha Mukherjee is the author of...
View ArticleShould we give people diseases in order to learn how to cure them?
With the right ethical safeguards, could ‘challenge trials’ defend against future pandemics?In the 1770s an English doctor called Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids didn’t seem to catch smallpox, the...
View ArticleThree things with Matt Agnew: ‘I wasn’t just a space nerd, I was a full-blown...
In our weekly interview about objects, the former Bachelor suitor and science author tells us about nostalgic Nintendo, and his first (and only) music gigRead more Three things interviews hereGet our...
View ArticleSong of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee review – the little lives within us
A masterclass in cell function that will leave you in awe of biologyCells build organisms from the ground up, and therefore to choose to write about them is to give oneself permission to explore almost...
View ArticleRonald Blythe at 100: ‘A watchful, curious and gratefully amazed vision of life’
A life rooted in Suffolk has given the great nature writer Ronald Blythe a deep love of the countrysideThe greatest living writer on the English countryside will celebrate his 100th birthday this week...
View ArticleThe big idea: stopping climate change isn’t enough – we need to reverse it
With the world on course to exceed 1.5C warming, taking carbon out of the atmosphere, as well as lowering emissions, will become increasingly importantThe past year has seen an unending drumbeat of...
View ArticleThe Climate Book, created by Greta Thunberg review – an angry call for action
The environmental activist curates a supergroup of climate experts in a valuable set of essays, which at times risk overwhelming the readerBeing Greta Thunberg is no picnic. Still not yet 20, she has...
View Article‘All this on our doorstep’: conservation and resistance on Gallows Down
The writer Nicola Chester views the Berkshire hill close to her village home as a focal point of belonging and guardianship towards natureHigh on a ridge above the village of Inkpen in the North Wessex...
View ArticleThe Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee review – mysteries of the...
The prizewinning author’s timely, precise study traces our attempts to understand the units that have such an impact on our healthIn spring 1858, the German scientist Rudolf Virchow published an...
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