Showing titles in Environmentalists & Naturalists

Finding herself in a new home in Brighton, Kate Bradbury sets about transforming her decked, barren backyard into a beautiful wildlife garden. She documents the unbuttoning of the earth and the rebirth of the garden, the rewilding of a tiny urban space. But while she's doing this Kate's neighbours continue to pave and deck their gardens locking them away, the wildlife she tries to save is further threatened, and she feels she's fighting an uphill battle.

'The most magical book about the African bush since Born Free' – Daily Mail 'A beautiful love story between humans and the majestic elephants' – Jo Malone, Daily Express Françoise Malby-Anthony never expected to find herself responsible for a herd of elephants with a troubled past. A chic...

Following on from the events in A Zoo in My Luggage, The Whispering Land sees Gerald Durrell and his wife Jacquie travel to Argentina to collect animals for their newly established zoo. With rare insight and unique charm, Durrell pulls the listener into the tropical landscape of Patagonia, where he witnesses magical moments with penguins, seals and ocelots, and encounters a hilarious cast of characters, including a swearing parrot and a belching guanaco.

A Zoo in My Luggage is the colorful, first-hand account of Gerald Durrell's six-month animal-collecting trip in British Cameroon, and his attempts to create his own zoo. Motivated by a passion for wildlife, and a desire to save endangered species from extinction, Durrell assembles a glorious panoply of exotic animals - including a female baboon called Georgina, who later runs amok in a department store; a black-eared squirrel, who tries to bury nuts in his ear; and a gentlemanly chimpanzee named Chumly, who greets him with an outstretched hand.

In The Robin, Stephen Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its lifecycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird and ultimately, death.

Amidst the tragedy of wild species extinction lies a hidden world of survival and wonder. Conservationists are embroiled in a high-stakes clash with a drug cartel to save a porpoise. Scientists are fighting to save a flightless bird that romances rocks. Unconventional animals are upending 21st...

'Ring of Bright Water' represents Gavin Maxwell's account of his life at Camusfearna, a remote cottage in the western Highlands, and in particular the two otters, Mijbil and Edal, who became his constant and much-loved companions.

'Captivating' Manchán Magan 'Sublime' Eoghan Daltun Seán Ronayne always knew he was different. Nicknamed 'nature boy' by the other kids, as a child he struggled to fit in and regularly escaped to the woods and coastlines around his home in Cork. The natural world was his happy place and where...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2019 Wordsworth and Coleridge as you’ve never seen them before in this new book by Adam Nicolson, brimming with poetry, art and nature writing. Proof that poetry can change the world. It is the most famous year in English poetry. Out of it came The...

In this stunning memoir, beloved internationally acclaimed earth advocate chronicles her journey to reconnect with the earth, offering a model for how we all can nurture the wild around and inside ourselves. In 1991, twenty-four-year-old Lynx Vilden crawled out of a sweat lodge covered in mud...

Brought to you by Penguin. A classic Gerald Durrell title reissued by Penguin to celebrate the centenary of his birth The Manor of the title is Les Augrès Manor in Trinity, Jersey. Inside, we find a remarkable collection of pen portraits of some of the creatures of Gerald Durrell's Zoo. We also...

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This audiobook is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today. It's also a wise, engaging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland.

‘A feast for mind and soul, a treasure trove of insights into the enigmatic and enchanting world of the birds we share our lives with but barely notice. I have learnt so much. Every page is a thrill. Bird School has opened my eyes' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding Step into the hide for a...

‘Based on meticulous research in original sources … Goodman illustrates vividly how adept [Banks] was … Shining a light on individuals whose achievements are relatively uncelebrated’ Jenny Uglow, New York Review of Books A bold new history of how botany and global plant collecting –...

Beasts in My Belfry is the wonderfully funny memoir about Gerald Durrell's time at Whipsnade Zoo and his experiences as a young zookeeper. Following the Second World War, Durrell joined Whipsnade Zoo as a junior keeper - an opportunity that fulfilled a lifelong dream. Thanks to Rupert Degas's brilliant voicing, which captures all of Durrell's charm and wit, the listener can enjoy being taken behind the scenes of one of the world's very first zoos. This is a delightful portrait of the animals who lived there and those who looked after them.

Beloved naturalist and author Gerald Durrell introduces an eccentric cast of characters in this entertaining collection of stories, first published in 1991. Which of these stories is true and which is semi-true I have, of course, not the slightest intention of telling you, but I hope this will...

Embark on a captivating adventure through the Argentine Pampas and the little-known Chaco territory of Paraguay with Gerald Durrell, the much-loved author of My Family and Other Animals. A riveting account of one of Durrell's expeditions in search of rare animals, The Drunken Forest is...

Bob Irwin's extraordinary life as a wildlife pioneer, father to wildlife warrior Steve and founder of Australia Zoo, told in his own words. Bob Irwin grew up in the Dandenong Ranges, where his passion for wildlife was born. A near-death experience while working as a plumber made Bob realise he needed to follow his dreams, so he and his wife, Lyn, moved their young family to Queensland, where they opened a wildlife park on the Sunshine Coast. The Irwin children grew up in around the Beerwah Reptile and Wildlife Park....

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE INDIE BOOK AWARD 2025 FOR NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024 Ingrained is a love letter to trees, timber and craftsmanship – and to finding your own voice. The eldest son of a Master...

COLLECTIVE WINNER OF THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE ‘This is the book that has been wanting to be written for decades: the ragged fringe of Britain as a laboratory for the human spirit’ Adam Nicolson Over the course of a year, leading historian and nature...