The Moth Snowstorm cover art

The Moth Snowstorm

Nature and Joy

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Moth Snowstorm

By: Michael McCarthy
Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Michael McCarthy, one of Britain's leading writers on the environment, proposes this joy as a defence of a natural world which is ever more threatened and which, he argues, is inadequately served by the two defences put forward hitherto: sustainable development and the recognition of ecosystem services.

Drawing on a wealth of memorable experiences from a lifetime of watching and thinking about wildlife and natural landscapes, McCarthy presents a new way of looking at the world.

©2015 Michael McCarthy (P)2015 W F Howes Ltd Animals Biological Sciences Ecology Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Physics Science

Listeners also enjoyed...

 John Muir cover art
The Consolation of Nature cover art
The Lost Rainforests of Britain cover art
The Wild Places cover art
Tough Crowd cover art
Dancing with Bees cover art
Forecast cover art
The Language of Butterflies cover art
Earth: Over 4 Billion Years in the Making cover art
The Circling Sky cover art
The Hedgehog Diaries cover art
Icons of England cover art
Curlew Moon cover art
12 Birds to Save Your Life cover art
Forget Me Not cover art
Can Life Prevail? cover art

Critic reviews

"A great, rhapsodic, urgent book full of joy, grief, rage and love.... A must-read." (Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk)
"Impassioned, polemical and personal.... At its heart, this is a book aiming to persuade those who are broadly sympathetic to think in a different way, and in that it is surely a success - and a joy." ( Independent)
"Articulated beautifully...his quest to track down every British butterfly as a tribute to his dead mother brought me to tears." ( Sunday Times)
All stars
Most relevant

Where does The Moth Snowstorm rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Near the top.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved hearing about the birds and the author's views of them.

What about Gordon Griffin’s performance did you like?

I liked how he read the book overall.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

I don't think it's the type of book that would make a good film. Not enough story or drama.

Any additional comments?

I found this book interesting and easy to follow, even though there were 2 strands, the author's upbringing and continuing relations with family and his views on nature as a whole.

A snowstorm I actually enjoyed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
t
Thoroughly enjoyed it and would totally recommend it to anyone who loves the natural world.

Wonderful book on so many levels.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved everything about this book. It was about nature and science but had a real heart to it too. It is a rare blend of being personal, without being overly self-referential. What will remain with me is how well he conveyed the magic and joy that comes from observing nature. It's cliched but it's genuinely made me stop and look about a bit more.

A gem

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

McCarthy introduces a powerful idea, the concept of defence through joy, because we only protect that which we love, and he believes that humans are unique in their capacity to love their planet.

Passionate and pragmatic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.