Natural History

The honey bee is a miracle. It is the cupid of the natural world. It pollinates crops; making plants bear fruit and helping farmers make money. But in this age of vast industrial agribusiness, never before has so much been asked of such a small wonder. And never before has its survival been so unclear - and the future of our food supply so acutely challenged. In steps John Miller, or rather in he bounds. Miller tasks himself with the care and safe transportation of billions of bees. He is descended from N.E. Miller, America's first... read more

This fascinating book charts the relationship between Mark Rowlands, a rootless philosopher, and Brenin, his extraordinarily well-travelled wolf.
More than just an exotic pet, Brenin exerted an immense influence on Rowlands as both a person, and, strangely enough, as a philosopher, leading him to re-evaluate his attitude to love, happiness, nature and death. By turns funny (what do you do when your wolf eats your air-conditioning unit?) and poignant, this life-affirming book will make you reappraise what it means to be human.

Born Wild is a story of passion, adventure and skulduggery on the frontline of African conservation. Following Tony Fitzjohn's journey from London bad boy to African wildlife warrior, the heart of the story is a series of love affairs with the world's most beautiful and endangered creatures - affairs that so often end in pain, for to succeed in re-introducing a lion or leopard to the wild is to be deprived of their companionship. Tony tells of his twenty years in Kenya with George Adamson of Born Free fame - a time of discovery, is... read more

Timber is a vital resource that is all around us. It is the house that shelters us, the furniture we relax in, the books we read, the paper we print, the disposable diapers for our babies and the boxes that contain our cereal, detergent and new appliances. The way we produce and consume timber, however, is changing. With international timber companies and big box discount retailers increasingly controlling through global commodity chains where and how much timber is traded, the world's remaining old-growth forests, particularly in ... read more

Drawing on the wisdom of an eclectic range of thinkers and writers, on medieval calendars and manorial records and, as ever, on Tom's own honestly recounted and frequently imperfect attempts to travel the road to self-sufficiency, Brave Old World is designed to give us all hope. Why, he asks, shouldn't we return to the ideals of a pre-capitalist, pre-Puritan, pre-consumerist world of feasting, dancing, horse-riding, wood-chopping, fire-laying, poultry-rearing, bartering, bread-baking and bee-keeping? From January to December, Brave... read more

Ten years ago, "Walking with Dinosaurs" brought this species to life with groundbreaking CGI and new science. Since then we have entered into a golden age of dinosaur discoveries and in this explosive new book to accompany the landmark BBC series, we discover more monstrous, more horrific and more bizarre dinosaurs than we've ever known before. The opening up of new areas of the world such as China and Africa have led to a huge increase in our knowledge. We have discovered the biggest plant-eating dinosaurs that ever lived, the gia... read more

A collection of over 200 photographs from the landmark BBC series that takes you across the world to experience some of the spectacles on earth. It unlocks the secrets of the skies and offers a glimpse into a previously inaccessible world. It offers a study of natural flight.

‘For some scientific questions, Antarctica is the best – and sometimes the only – place to look for answers. Visiting this frozen landscape is to gain a fresh perspective on our world, almost like going to another planet and looking back with renewed wonder on Earth.’ In Science on Ice, award-winning science broadcaster and writer Veronika Meduna follows deep-south scientists who huddle in tents and dive under ice to study ancient mud, fat fish, migrating penguins and fossilised forests. Meduna presen... read more

The epic story of the beginning of life on Earth from the much loved and respected naturalist, writer and broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough. Spanning billions of years, First Life reveals the extraordinary story of the evolution of the first life on Earth and how it then evolved into multicellular life, the first plant, the first animal, the first predator, the first to live on land: key moments in the development of the huge diversity of life that has lived on planet Earth. First Life travels the world, from Canada to Australi... read more

In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Tova Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris - a common woodland snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater understanding of the interconnections between species and her own human place in the... read more

The Atlantic salmon is an extraordinary and mysterious fish. In To Sea and Back, Richard Shelton combines memoir and deep scientific knowledge to reveal, from the salmon's point of view, both the riverine and marine worlds in which it lives. He explores this iconic fish's journey to reach its feeding grounds in the northern oceans before making the return over thousands of miles to the burns of its birth to reproduce. Along the way, Shelton describes the feats of exploration that gave us our first real understanding of the oceans, ... read more

No Description

DoP November Australia Hardcover The largest, swiftest, highest-leaping and most migratory fishes on the planet all live in the open ocean. Beautifully adapted to their world, they range from tiny drift fishes and slow plankton-straining whale sharks to high-energy, streamlined predators such as tunas and marlin. "Fishes of the Open Ocean", from Julian Pepperell, one of Australia's best-known marine biologists and world authority on oceanic fishes, is the first book to describe these fishes, their biology and the complex, ofte... read more

"In an obsessive 82,000-mile quest for dead birds, how much trouble can one scientist get into?"<p>Finally, the world's leading authority on the extinct Labrador Duck, Dr. Glen Chilton, shares the story of his frenzied obsession to reveal the histories behind the mysterious bird -- a saga wherein he sets out to examine the remains of every Labrador Duck, conduct genetic analysis on every Labrador Duck egg, and visit every site where the duck was shot...with many a (mis)adventure along the way.&lt... read more

"I had the ambition to not only go as far as anyone had been before, but as far as it was possible for man to go." - Lieutenant James Cook, 1771. The mighty Tasman Sea casts a spell on all who venture into it. Here, for the first time, is a book that tells its remarkable life story, from its early origins to the multi-layered human experience of it ...whenever people interact with a sea of the Tasman's nature, there is bound to be drama. The Tasman describes life of all kinds, from first exploration, shipping disasters, heroic cros... read more

Why do we find polar bears only in the Arctic and penguins only in the Antarctic? Why do oceanic islands often have many types of birds but no large native mammals? As Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace travelled across distant lands studying the wildlife they both noticed that the distribution of plants and animals formed striking patterns - patterns that held strong clues to the past of the planet. The study of the spatial distribution of living things is known as biogeography. It is a field that could be said to have begun... read more

This entertaining book deals with an endlessly fascinating subject in a new, unique way. Humans have always had an ambivalent relationship with deadly animals. For most people they arouse fears and even phobias, yet perhaps the real risks are not quite as large as they loom in the public imagination. DEADLY BEAUTIFUL offers an entertaining portrait of some of the main dangerous animal species with which humans have a love-hate relationship. Clear, up-to-date, scientifically accurate information about the natural history of these sp... read more

Colin Elford spends his days alone - alone but for the deer, the squirrels, the rabbits, the birds, and the many other creatures inhabiting the woods. From the crisp cold of January, through the promise of spring and the heat of summer, and then into damp autumn and the chill winds of winter, we accompany the forest-ranger as he goes about his work - stalking in the early morning darkness, putting an injured fallow buck out of its misery, watching stoats kill a hare, observing owls, and simply being a part of the outdoors. "A Year ... read more

Insects are the most extreme organisms on Earth and, despite their diminutive size, they wield inordinate power. With the exception of the polar icecaps, every terrestrial ecosystem on earth is colonized by them, and they account for almost three-quarters of all named animals -- that's one million species at the last count! This stunningly-illustrated book is a celebration of the insect universe, exploring their amazing forms and functions, their fascinating behaviour and the enormous impact they have on our lives. With its lively... read more

Newly updated throughout, and now covering 118 elements, this crystal-clear guide to the periodic table illuminates the basic concepts of chemistry as it traces the history and development of our knowledge of the material world. In this fascinating volume, Albert Stwertka makes complex ideas and terms easily understandable, drawing upon engaging historical anecdotes and everyday examples to clarify the text, which is complemented by numerous illustrations, many in full color. Since the second edition, many new elements have been na... read more