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Light is changing, dramatically. Our world is getting brighter - you can see it from space. But is brighter always better? Artificial light is voracious and spreading. Vanquishing precious darkness across the planet, when we are supposed to be using less energy. The quality of light has altered as well. Technology and legislation have crushed warm incandescent lighting in favour of harsher, often glaring alternatives. Light is fundamental - it really matters. It interacts with life in profound yet subtle ways: it tells plants which way to grow, birds where to fly and coral when to spawn. It tells each and every one of us when to sleep, wake, eat. We mess with the eternal rhythm of dawn-day-dusk-night at our peril. But mess with it we have, and we still don't truly understand the consequences. In Incandescent, journalist Anna Levin reveals her own fraught relationship with changes in lighting, and she explores its real impact on nature, our built environment, health and psychological well-being. We need to talk about light, urgently. And ask the critical question: just how bright is our future?

Hong Kong, 2012. Dimitri Johnson learns that he is dying. Stunned by his doctor's prognosis, he nevertheless makes his ritual annual pilgrimage to the candlelight vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. But this year, he thinks, may be his last. So little time remains. Over on the mainland, Chinese academic Yu Guodong is arrested for protesting against an official land grab in his ancestral village. Guodong's wife appeals to Dimitri's family for help, but taking on the forces of the state is fraught with danger. And isn't it simply a fool's errand, anyway? A powerful family drama set against the backdrop of the burgeoning protest movement that led to Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution, Chinese Spring explores the reality of democracy and dissent in modern China. And begs the question: have things really changed for the post-Tiananmen generation?

This comprehensive handbook, compiled with the expertise of Reforesting Scotland's editors, covers trees commonly found in Scotland. From seed provenance and propagation to the history and lore of each species, this single source contains all the information you need to select the right trees for your site and grow them successfully. Whether you are an owner of (or volunteer at) a small woodland, a gardener looking to incorporate the most appropriate trees into your space, or simply a lover of woodland walks and trees, this invaluable reference will be your one essential guide. Ebook edition includes colour photos.

An authoritative guide to the history, landscape and lore along the scenic English train line between Settle and Carlisle, by an established travel writer and railway aficionado.Widely known as England's most picturesque line, the enduring Settle-Carlisle Railway crosses the north Pennines between Yorkshire and Cumbria, traversing stunning scenery from the Dales through the lonely and lofty fells to the limestone pavements of Westmorland, and on into the lush, green Eden Valley.The line was built by the Midland Railway company in the 1870s, to forge an independent route connecting its English network with Scotland. Uniquely for a railway in the UK, the entire infrastructure is a Conservation Area in its own rightcomprising viaducts, stations, bridges, tunnels, trackside structures and railway workers' cottages.

Approvalis a powerful meditation on judgment, the adoption process, and fatherhood, told from a perspective rarely explored in fiction: a mans response to a couples infertility.Approvalfollows would-be parents David and Cici through a series of forays into the past as they go through the motions of applying to adopt a child. Their story builds a picture of hope, vulnerability and fear as David is put under intense and intrusive scrutiny during their battle against faceless bureaucracy.From family background and early experiences to adult relationships, he is forced to revisit uncomfortable sometimes painful episodes, in the hope of meeting the authoritys requirements.Confronting a lonely, difficult and uncertain path to family life, and raising questions about how much intervention and judgement is necessary for the state to ascertain fitness to parent,Approvalultimately invites the reader to decide.

Tracing our environmental impact through time, David Howe demonstrates how humanitys exploitation of Earths natural resources has pushed our planet to its limit and asks: Whats next for our depleted planet?Everything we use started life in the earth, as a rock or a mineral vein, a layer of an ancient seabed, or perhaps the remains of a 400-million-year-old volcano.Humanity's ability to fashion nature to its own ends is by no means a new phenomenonwe have been inventing new ways to help ourselves to its bounty for tens of thousands of years. But today, we mine, quarry, pump, cut, blast, and crush Earth's resources at an unprecedented rate. We have become a dominant, even dangerous, force on the planet.InExtraction to Extinction, David Howe traces our impact through time to unearth how our obsession with endlessly producing and throwing away more and more stuff could destroy our planet. But is there still time to turn it around?

A stimulating collection of essays about our environment, nature, and wildlife by world-renowned naturalist and conservationist Roy Dennis.A new collection of vibrant essays to inform, stimulate and inspire every nature lover.Times of darkness offer opportunities to reflect. In Mistletoe Winter, Roy Dennis offers his reflections on the natural world from the past yearfrom the welcome signs of change to the ongoing problems we are posing for nature, and what humankind can and must do about them.As in his companion volume, Cottongrass Summer, Roy Dennis balances his alarm at the crisis confronting the natural world with his own sense of optimism that new generations can make crucial changes for the future. One of our most prominent advocates for our planet and its species, he writes with insight and originality. This volume will provide inspiration and ideas for everyone who cares about our planet and its species.

The first book to focus on Dorothy Wordsworths later life and work and the impact of her disability allowing her to step out from her brothers shadow and back into her own life story.Dorothy Wordsworth is well known as the author of the Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals (17981803) and as the sister of the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. She is widely praised for her nature writing and is often remembered as a woman of great physical vitality. Less well known, however, is that Dorothy became seriously ill in 1829 and was mostly housebound for the last twenty years of her life.Her personal letters and unpublished journals from this time paint a portrait of a compassionate and creative woman who made her sickroom into a garden for herself and her pet robin and who finally grew to call herself a poet. They also reveal how vital Dorothy was to her brothers success, and the closeness they shared as siblings.By re-examining her life through the perspective of her illness, this biography allows Dorothy Wordsworth to step out from her brothers shadow and back into her own life story.

To paraphrase L.P. Hartley, "e;The past is a different country."e; Stan L Abbott sets out to explore the visible clues to our mysterious past from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages: stone circles. Cumbria boasts more of these monuments than any other English county. Here, our tallest mountains are ringed by almost fifty circles and henges, most of them sited in the foothills or on outlying plateaux. Were these the earliest such monuments in Britain, placing Cumbria at the heart of Neolithic society? And what traces of that society remain today in the roads we travel, the food we eat, the words we speak, our work and play? By observing and comparing many sites in Cumbria and beyond, and researching many sources, a greater understanding emerges. Were some circles built for ritualistic purposes, or perhaps astronomical? Were they burial sites? Or were they just places for people to meet? Illustrated with linocut illustrations by artist Denise Burden, Ring of Stone Circles follows the search for the hidden stories these monuments guard - and might reveal if we get to know them.

When twelve-year-old Sherrie-Lee witnesses a failed bank robbery in her neglected town, she seizes an opportunity to claim a new identity for herself. Escaping her troubled home life, she tries out a new name and invents stories and personas to cover her tracks. Sherrie-Lee finds both possibility and loneliness in this new freedom, as well as an unusual friendship which she nurtures. But harsh realities close in, and she's plagued with foreboding - from her vulnerable brother at home to the climate crisis. While she dreams of a kinder world, it won't be long before her own deceits start catching up with her. This arresting debut challenges assumptions and captures the powerless yearning of adolescence with a voice that is fresh, magnetic and often funny - one that pulls you in and won't let go.

From Great Yarmouth to Aberystwyth, Westering is a coast-to-coast journey crossing the Fens, Leicester, the Black Country and central Wales. It connects landscape, place and memory to evoke a narrative unravelling the deep topography, and following a westerly route that runs against the grain of the land, its geology, culture and historical bedrock. With the industrial Midlands sandwiched between bucolic landscapes in East Anglia and Wales, here we explore places too often overlooked. Along the way we encounter deserted medieval villages, battlefield sites, the ghosts of Roman soldiers, valleys drowned for reservoirs, ancient forests, John Clare's beloved fields, and the urban edgelands. Notions of home and belonging, landscapes of loss and absence, birds and the resilience of nature, the psychology of walking, and the psychogeography of liminal places all frame the story.

"e;A high-octane read."e; - Maxim JakubowskiMeet Jen. She works in a bookshop and likes the odd glass of Prosecco... oh, and she's about to be branded The Most Dangerous Woman in Scotland.Jen Carter is a failed writer with a rubbish boyfriend, Ed. That is, until she accidentally kills him one night. Now that Ed's dead, she has to decide what to do with his body, his drugs and a big pile of cash. And, more pressingly, how to escape the hitman who's been sent to recover Ed's stash. Soon Jen's on the run from criminals, corrupt police officers and the prying eyes of the media. Who can she trust? And how can she convince them that the trail of corpses left in her wake are just accidental deaths?A modern noir that proves, once and for all, the female of the species really is more deadly than the male."e;a quick, gritty read, from an author with a confident voice..."e; Crime Review"e;A really authentic and remarkable read! I loved it!"e; Martina Cole"e;Pitch black humour fascinatinggripping."e; Herald"e;A thoroughly contemporary crime thriller which has its tongue in its cheek while maintaining the suspense and tension that readers would expect Terrific fun to read."e; Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae"e;Funny and fierce, and a heroine worth rooting for..."e; Brooke Magnanti"e;McLean has created an appealing protagonist, with a strong and consistent voice... It seems strange to say that a novel with so many bloody fatalities can be fun, but this one is!"e; Crime Fiction Lover"e;One of Scotland's most skilled noiristas a book which will appeal to booksellers everywhere, especially homicidal ones."e; Mike Ripley, Shots magazine"e;This book is fantastic! Fast paced and at times just utter nuts A beautiful masterpiece of modern Scottish Noir that leaves you unsure about whether you should laugh or cry."e; Amanda Gillies, Eurocrime"e;We're not sure when we last enjoyed a book quite this much The sheer pace of the story carries you along breathlessly Hugely entertaining."e; Undiscovered Scotland

David Howe tells the story of the Lake District, England's most dramatic landscape. Home to vistas of stunning beauty and a rich heritage, it is an area of England that fascinates, inspires - and has bewitched David for a lifetime. With passion and an endless curiosity, he reveals how half a billion years of shifting ice, violent volcanoes and (of course) falling rain have shaped the lakes and fells that have fired the imaginations of the great sons and daughters of the area, the poets and the scientists. He shows that Lakeland is a seamless web where lives and landscape weave together, where the ancient countryside has created a unique local history: of farming and mining, of tightknit communities, of a resilient and proud people. The Lake District is a place of rocks and rain, reason and romance, wonder and curiosity. And this book celebrates it all: the very character of Cumbria.Praise for Wandering in Norfolk: East Anglian Book Awards 2017, SHORTLISTED "e;A real treat, and a perfect read for that comfortable armchair in front of the woodburner on a cold winter's day."e; Eastern Daily Press"e;The pot pourri style is very effective ... thoughtful views on a variety of subjects and some beautifully written science lessons ... an excellent and well written book."e; Amazon reviewer"e;Beautifully written, a joy to read."e; Amazon reviewer

The story of a murder and its aftermath. On Christmas Night in 1881, John Manley, a poor son of Irish immigrants living in the slums of Leeds, was fatally stabbed in a drunken quarrel. The frightened murderer went on the run, knowing that capture could see him hang.A few generations later, author Catherine Czerkawska begins to tease out the truth behind her great-great-uncle's tragic death. But she uncovers far more than she bargained for.In a personal family story that takes us from Ireland to the industrial heartlands of England and Scotland, from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, Catherine gives voice to people often maligned by society and silenced by history - immigrants, women, the working classes. She unearths a tale of injustice and poverty, hope and resilience, and she is both angered and touched by what she finds. Catherine is driven to keep digging, to get to the very heart of life - and death - in the not-so-distant past.

A poetic voice of great sensitivity. - Alexander McCall SmithBeneath the Ice tells the fascinating, often troubling, story of the Sami - the indigenous people of the Scandinavian Arctic. A proud and resilient people in an unforgiving yet stunningly beautiful northern wildscape, the Sami have carved out an existence rich in tradition, where the old ways of reindeer herding, shamanic belief and the veneration of bears have not yet been forgotten.Author Kenneth Steven celebrates this unique culture in a collection of essays that chronicle his own lifelong love affair with the north, and his own encounters with the Sami. Displaying a deep empathy, he finds a people often persecuted and a community under threat from modernity and climate change. But he also uncovers the Samis idiosyncratic culture - and captures the very essence of northern spirit.

Femke, her mother Trijn and her grandfather have very different ideas about how to run their family farm. Tensions between mother and daughter are growing; Femke wants to switch to sustainable growing principles, whilst her mother considers this an attack on tradition. To make matters worse, their home province of Groningen is experiencing a series of earthquakes caused by a fracking operation near their farm. While the cracks and splinters in their farmhouse increase, the authorities and the state-owned gas company refuse to offer the local farming community any help.In Shocked Earth, Saskia Goldschmidt investigates what it means to have your identity intensely entwined with your place of birth and your principles at odds with your closest kin.And how to keep standing when the world as you know it is slowly falling apart.

Fifty-something librarian Shona is a proud former pupil of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, but has a deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which she thinks gives her alma mater a bad name. Impeccably educated and an accomplished martial artist, linguist and musician, Shona is selected by Marcia Blaine herself to travel back in time for a crucial mission involving Macbeth, the Weird Sisters and a black cat.Unsure which version of history she's in, Shona tries to figure out who she's here to save. But between playing the Fool and being turned into a mouse, things don't always go her way. Shona's expertise in martial arts is put to the test as family tensions rise and fingers are pointed for murder. Can Shona unravel the mystery in time to complete her mission?Never underestimate a librarian!

The Lake District is one of our busiest national parks. Many people believe that wildness is long gone from the fells, lakes, tarns and becks, yet, within its boundaries, Jim Crumley sets out to prove them wrong - to find "e;a new way of seeing and writing about this most seen and written about of landscapes"e;.With a naturalist's eye and a poet's instinct he is drawn to Lakeland's turned-aside places where nature still thrives, from low-lying shores to a high mountain oakwood that's not even on the map. Through backwaters and backwoods, Crumley traces this captivating land's place in the evolution of global conservation and pleads the case for a far-reaching reappraisal of all of Lakeland's wildness.

A haunting, award-winning and multi-award-nominated novel of the Iolaire disaster, written by a son of the Hebrides.

A one-of-a-kind anthology of writing on the landscapes and nature of the North of England, edited by a leading nature writer and environmentalist.

Eminent British writer Sir Edward Strathairn returns to the Japanese resort hotel where he once spent a beautiful winter falling in love and writing his best-selling novel, which accused America of being in denial about the horrific consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. As we learn more about Sir Edward's earlier life, however - his student days in Bloomsbury, his relationship with a famous American artist - we realise that he too is in denial, trying to escape the past events that are now rapidly catching up with him. An Exquisite Sense of What is Beautiful is a sweeping novel of East and West, love and war, truth and delusion. Featuring richly drawn characters and a narrative that perfectly builds the tension up to the explosive climax, this book has all the hallmarks of a modern classic.

Imani is a foundling. Raised by nuns on a Northumbrian Island, she grows up with an increasing sense of displacement. After the death of her biological mother, Imani travels to Ghana - beginning a journey of self-discovery that illuminates the stories we all tell to make ourselves whole.

The Mahogany Pod is a deeply moving account of falling in love with someone who only has a few months to live. Through honest prose, Jill Hopper's story explores the joy and pain of loving and losing, and the beginnings that come after endings.

A poisoned breeze blows across the waves ... Operation Cauldron, 1952: Top-secret germ warfare experiments on monkeys and guinea pigs are taking place aboard a vessel moored off the Isle of Lewis. Local villagers Jessie and Duncan encounter strange sights on the deserted beach nearby and suspect the worst.

An entertaining memoir of rain, midges, petty authority figures and minor humiliations, lightened with music, booze, anarchy and an array of eccentric characters.

The final instalment in the acclaimed "Seasons" series, which interrogates how climate change has disrupted the natural rhythm of the seasons. It has attracted widespread praise and prize attention; Jim's passionate stance on climate chaos and the need for rewilding chimes with an increasingly eco-aware public.

Everything Passes, Everything Remains takes us freewheelin' through Spain, song and memory as Chris Dolan documents his lifelong journey from Glasgow to Valencia. Along the way Dolan explores Spain's history, and future, through stories of the great writers before him and the friends around him.

"e;He's back, Carrie. The Scribbler is back."e;DI Gayther and his rookie colleague DC Carrie have been assigned a new caseload. Or rather, an old one... cold murder cases of LGBTQ+ victims.Georgia Carrie wasn't even born when the notorious serial killer began his reign of terror across the East of England, but Roger Gayther was on the force that failed to catch him and remembers every chilling detail.Back in the Eighties, Gayther's team hadn't been assigned sufficient resources. But now, after all these years, there's a sudden death featuring The Scribbler's tell-tale modus operandi. Gayther and Carrie have to find and bring him to justice to stop the killing once and for all.

Spring marks the genesis of nature's year. As Earth's northern hemisphere tilts ever more towards the life-giving sun, the icy, dark days of winter gradually yield to the new season's intensifying light and warmth. Nature responds... Jim chronicles it all: the wonder, the tumult, the spectacle of spring.