We hope you enjoy these works from literature and the arts that are inspired by wildlives. From poetic explorations of ancient landscapes and practical manuals on spotting British birds, these references provide an insight into the natural world. Some are pieces of artistic interpretation, and others are a call to action to protect our increasingly vulnerable planet. If you have any recommendations of your own we would love to hear them – please contact us

books and papers

Bach, Richard ‘Jonathan Livingstone Seagull’, 1970

A fable in novella form exploring the pursuit of excellence by a young seagull learning about life and flight.

Baker, J.A. ‘The Peregrine’, 1967

Breathtaking in its savagery. Herzog describes The Peregrine as inducing “ecstasy” in the radical sense of the word: not just entranced or frenzied, but literally beside oneself. “And this is what I do when I make a film: I step outside of myself into an ekstasis; in Greek, to step outside of your own body.”

Bohm, David ‘On Dialogue’, 1996

Essential reading! Bohm sets out why we need deeper listening and more open communication to cope with the complex problems facing humanity.

Brody, Hugh ‘Maps and Dreams’, 1981

An account of an 18 month journey mapping both the lands of British Columbia and the lives of a group of Beaver Indian hunters living in the path of a projected oil pipeline. Careful and detailed account of shifting territories and conflicting worldviews.

Byatt, A.S ‘Possession: A Romance’, 1990

Possibly the best description of a rock pool in literature.

Carson, Rachel ‘The Silent Spring’, 1962

Haunting, and not for the faint hearted.

Chatwin, Bruce ‘The Songlines’, 1987

Beautiful book on walking, restlessness and nomads.

Chomsky, Noam ‘The Magna Carta Messed up the World, Here’s How to Fix it’, 2015

Classic Chomsky.

Darwin, Charles ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits’, 1881

Actually we haven’t read this yet, but it is so often referred to and seems such an important study that we have included it anyway.

Deakin, Roger ‘Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees’, 2008

Quite possibly one of our favourite books, published very shortly after Deakin’s death, exploring our relationship with trees and wood in cultures across the world.

Dillard, Annie ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’, 1974

This finely observed non fiction narrative is another favourite of our team. Dillard turns nature over to try and understand what makes it tick. The writing is beautiful too “If it works, if it quickens, set it clacking in the grass; there’s always room for one more; you ain’t so handsome yourself. This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent.”

Duff, Gail and Garland, Linda ‘The Countryside Cookbook’, 1982

Linda Garland’s beautiful illustrations and inclusion of remedies for people and animals alongside recipes. Many of them have their origins in the deep past of the British landscape, make this into much more than a foraging guide.

Evans, Paul ‘Field Notes From The Edge’, 2015

Fine-grained nature writing about the marginal places in the British landscape and their unique ways of being wild.

Fernández-Juricic, Esteban and Jokimäki, Jukki ‘A Habitat island Approach to Conserving Birds in Urban Landscapes’, 2001

Research which compares the impact of fragmentation on biodiversity in the forests of Lapland and urban parks in Madrid.

Gordimer, Nadine ‘The Conservationist’, 1974

A novel that explores the complex relationship between a rich white farmer’s relationship to his land and apartheid. Not an easy read, but powerful.

Goulson, Dave ‘Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse’, 2021

Clear and occasionally chilling book describing the many roles of insects in global ecosystems and the consequences of losing them.

Haraway, Donna ‘When Species Meet’, 2007

A personal and compelling examination of the “macro and micro cultures” which exist in the relationships between people and other species.

Heaf, David ‘Bee-Friendly Beekeeper: A Sustainable Approach’, 2015

Practical manual explaining potentially unsustainable beekeeping practices and how to practice sustainable apiary.

Hetch, Gabrielle & le Roux, Hannah ‘Bad Earth’, 2020

Finely researched paper on the circular economy and what happens when the earth is contaminated.

Holden, Peter ‘Birds’, 2004

A beginners wildlife guide to the birds of Britain.

Hutton, Jane ‘Reciprocal Landscapes: Stories of Material Movements’, 2020

On order! Looking forward to reading this after a brilliant lecture as part of the AA’s Public Programme Land series.

Ingold, Tim ‘Making’, 2013

Art, Architecture, Anthropology, Archaeology.

Kingsolver, Barbara ‘Flight Behaviour’, 2012

A love song to the monarch butterfly.

Berger, John ‘Why Look At Animals?’, 1980

Essay from the anthology “About Looking”, on the origins of interactions and relationships between people and other species, an excellent prequel to Haraway’s ‘When Species Meet’.

Latour, Bruno ‘Facing Gaïa’, 2017

An essay collection that describes the “new climatic regime” and asks how we can adjust our attitudes to climate and environment to adapt to the new reality. Practical and hopeful, without avoiding devastating truths.

Mabey, Richard ‘Flora Britannica: The definitive new guide to wild flowers, plants and trees’, 1996

Gorgeous reinvention of the flora as a cultural account of the role of wild plants in social life, arts, custom and landscape. It is also unique in that information has been supplied by the people themselves.

Macfarlane, Robert ‘Landmarks’, 2015

A book on the power of language to shape our sense of place. Contains a glossary of thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to describe land, nature and weather.

Monbiot, George ‘Feral: Rewilding the land, sea and human life’, 2013

A lyrical exploration about the place of humans in the natural world.

ed. Monbiot, George ‘This Can’t Be Happening’, 2021

A collection of essays deftly setting out some of the crises of climate chaos and putting human action at the centre of remediation.

Ostrom, Elinor ‘Governing the Commons: Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action’, 1990

Elinor Ostrom was an economist and political scientist who championed the ability of communities, rather than corporations, to manage the commons. She debunked ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’, demonstrating that groups of ordinary people are able to share natural resources in ways that are sustainable and without over-exploitation. Her ground-breaking work won her a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009.

Powers, Richard ‘The Overstory’, 2018

A novel at landscape scale, moving and powerful on the subject of trees and forests.

Proulx, Annie ‘Barksins’, 2016

A story spanning 300 years, witnessing the deforestation of the New World from the arrival of Europeans into the contemporary era of global warming. Incredibly beautiful and moving passages on individual species of tree across the world and what made them sought after.

Rackham, Oliver ‘Woodlands’, 2006

This and Rackham’s 1976 “Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape” are seminal texts on the role of woodland in British landscapes, history, culture and ecology. They uniquely balance rigorous but legible scientific grounding with historical and cultural nuances to make a fascinating narrative and invaluable reference book.

Raworth, Kate ‘Doughnut Economics’, 2018

Explores the planetary boundaries our economies must respect to create an equitable world for all.

Sheldrake, Merlin ‘Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures’, 2020

This will entirely change the way you see the world. Sheldrake is a scientist with the imagination of a poet and a beautiful writer.

Shepard, Nan ‘The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland’, 1977

Powerful poetic exploration of the Cairngorms, where the goal was not the summit, but rather the essential nature of the mountain itself. Written during WWII.

Simmard, Suzanne ‘Finding The Mother Tree’, 2021

Beautiful memoir of a life among trees by a Canadian ecologist. Filled with Simard’s effortless expertise about trees and forests.

Thoreau, Henry ‘Walking’, 1862

One of our favourite slim volumes, recognising the value of swamps, but also of the arc and flow a conversation might take on the course of a walk.

Timofeeva, Oxana ‘The History of Animals: A philosophy’, 2018

A romp through how Western philosophy embraces the animal in us all, or not.

Tree, Isabella ‘Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm’, 2019

This was the book everyone wanted for Christmas in 2020, a remarkable story of an astounding transformation.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt ‘The Mushroom at the End of the World’, 2021

An inspiring book about the opportunities and diversity that exist in damaged landscapes, centring the Matsutake mushroom to tell the story.

Wallace Wells, David ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’, 2019

The most brilliant and frightening book we’ve read on humans’ technical ability to respond to climate change.

Warwick, Hugh ‘Linescapes’, 2017

In the tradition of Watkins’ The Old Straight Track and Macfarlane’s The Old Ways, this book engages the reader in a journey tracing the lines that traverse British landscapes, using a hedgehog’s perspective. It is a very useful exposition of the harm done by discontinuity of habitats caused by human activities.

Wohlleben, Peter ‘Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World’, 2015

Explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration observed in the woodland. This book constantly comes up in all our favourite conversations.

films and media

Dassoler, Elisa ‘Ken Saro-Wiwa lives on!’, 2017

A documentary about Ken Saro-Wiwa, a recognized Nigerian writer and activist who led a peaceful resistance movement against practices of environmental racism and genocide of ethnic minorities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Ehrlich, Pippa and Reed, James ‘My Octopus Teacher’, 2020

This documentary tells the story of a filmmaker forging an intimate relationship with an octopus in the South African kelp Forest.

Gapminder Foundation ‘Gapminder’, 2005

An independent Swedish charity that identifies common misconceptions on a range of issues including climate and sustainability. Gapminder provides data and teaching materials to help stop the spread of damaging misinformation.

Harries, Jack & Eady, Alice ‘@earthrise.studio’

A beautifully curated Instagram account raising questions about climate change. @earthrise.studio describe themselves as a ‘multimedia storytelling studio for climate’ and a place for telling ‘radical stories of hope and possibility’.

Haynes, Todd ‘Dark Water’, 2019

This film tells the story of Robert Bilott’s relentless legal battle against chemical manufacturing company DuPont, who are accused of contaminating a town in West Virginia with unregulated toxic substances.

Longdon Attlee, Joycelyn ‘@climateincolour’

An informative and thought-provoking Instagram account and website celebrating diverse climate conversations. @climateincolour provides educational content for those curious to find out more about the impact of climate change on our planet and its people.

Werner, Herzog ‘Where the Green Ants Dream’, 1985

A fictional film inspired by a true narrative which tells the tale of a land right dispute between a mining company and the indigenous Aboriginal people, who claim this land is where the green ants dream.

Kotevska, Tamara & Stefanov, Ljubomir ‘Honeyland’, 2019

A documentary describing the deep interconnectedness of humanity and nature, through the story of the last female wild beekeeper in Europe.

Lammy, David ‘Climate justice can’t happen without racial justice’, 2020

TEDTalk about the importance of the conversation around racial inequality and support of minority leadership in climate issues.

Shell Oil ‘Climate of Concern’, 1991

A documentary about the disastrous consequences of climate change produced by oil giant Shell.

poetry and music

Anderson, Laurie ‘Concert for Dogs’, 2016

This high frequency musical performance by performance artist Laurie Anderson shifted focus away from our human-centric perception of the world to provide a 30 minute concert for the enjoyment of our canine friends.

Björk ‘Oceania’, 2004

Beautiful electronic music written from the perspective of the sea.

Debussey, Claude ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’, 1894

A symphonic poem set to music depicting the dreams and desires of a faun as it frolics through woodland on a hazy summer day.

Delius, Frederick ‘A Song of Summer’, 1931

An evocative orchestral tone poem depicting cliffs of heather, gentle ocean waves and soaring seagulls.

Messiaen, Oliver ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’, 1958

A wonderfully varied collection of piano pieces celebrating the birds and landscapes of France – from choughs in alpine landscapes, to golden orioles singing amongst trees.

Potter, Claire ‘Acanthus’, 2022

Lyrical poetry that evokes landscapes from across both hemispheres. These poems merge observation and imagination to conjure rich scenes of the natural world.

Sheldrake, Cosmo ‘Interspecies Collaboration’, 2013

A unique Ted talk, this interspecies collaboration brings together an electronically produced symphony of natural sounds and bird song merged with Sheldrake’s own vocal improvisation.

Somby, Ande ‘Yoiks’, various

Sami throat singing that conjures up animals and landscapes from the nordic landscape.

The Beatles & The Paragons ‘Blackbird’, 1968

Sung by both the Beatles and the Paragons. Paul McCartney described this song as influenced by the sound of blackbirds in Rishikesh, India. The song includes recordings of blackbirds played beneath the well-known refrain ‘blackbirds singing in the dead of night’.

visual art

Atkins, Anna ‘Cyanotypes of British Algae’, 1843

Mesmerising and exquisitely detailed cyanotype illustrations of British algae by a pioneering female botanist.

Brown, Joan ‘Adventures of A Woman’, 1975

A dreamy depiction of a quiet interaction between a woman and deer. Brown worked prolifically, representing her inner life on the canvas – exploring the ‘animal’ aspect of her consciousness, her relationships, and her interests. Animals appear often in her work as spirit guides or mystic symbols.

Holden, Andy & Holden, Peter ‘Natural Selection: A Natural History of Nest Building: A Social History of Egg Collecting’, 2017

An art exhibition and accompanying book celebrating bird life. Andy and Peter Holden depict a broad spectrum of histories on the topic of nest building, from descriptions of how birds create their different forms of nests, to stories of illegal egg collectors and an exploration of the parallels between nest building and the process of making art.

Orlow, Uriel ‘Mafavuke’s Trial and Other Plant Stories’, 2016

An eye-opening exhibition exploring plant life and politics in colonial and post-colonial contexts – from colonial response to traditional herbal practices, to Nelson Mandela’s garden at Robben Island Prison.

Pomroy, Jonathan ‘Animal behaviour’, https://jonathanpomroy.wordpress.com/ category/animal-behaviour/

A blog by wildlife artist Jonathan Pomroy with exquisite sketches and regularly updated descriptions of British wildlife.

further reading