SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION
A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES, WATERSTONES AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE
A NEX BIG IDEA CLUB MUST READ

In a Polish forest a young woman befriends a boar. An Englishman sets up home with two beavers in Saskatchewan. A zoologist watches a fish make a conscious decision. Darwin finds the evidence for evolution in the backyards of pigeon fanciers. The entire population of Croatia anxiously awaits the arrival of a single stork.

Animals have shaped our lives, our land, our civilisation, and they will shape our future. Yet as our impact on the world and the animals we share it with increases, there has never been a greater urgency to understand this foundational relationship.

Beastly is the 40,000-year story of animals and humans as it has never been captured before, seen eye-to-eye and claw-to-hand through those humans who have stepped into the myriad worlds of our animal relatives. Our relationship with animals has always been paradoxical, but the greatest paradox may yet be this: diversity of life can heal ecosystems. Animals - if given the chance - could save us.

"A dazzling examination of our contradictory attitudes towards the creatures with whom we share the planet . . . [A] fantastic, heartfelt history of human-animal relations" - * Guardian *

"[A] heartfelt account of the environmental catastrophe . . . Beastly is a clarion call for the humbler notion that every bit of nature matters" - * Observer *

"A positive, information-packed read about reconnecting with our wild world" - * Independent *

"If you are interested in the animal kingdom; if you are interested in the past, present and future of planet Earth; if you are interested in anything at all - then this gorgeous, joyous, sobering book is for you" - * Irish Times *

"Reading Beastly is a little like padding, barefoot, through a forest . . . Heartfelt" - * New Statesman *

"Many stories linger after reading Beastly: a polyphony in which tale after tale accumulates . . . The book is exhilaratingly busy with ideas . . . A cunningly structured book" - * Perspective *