Nature Writing – Stanfords Blog

Extract- Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024

Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 takes us on a beautiful journey through the British countryside, drawn from The Guardian’s beloved Country Diary. With an introduction by Ian McMillan, and illustrations by Clifford Harper.

For over a century, The Guardian’s Country Diary has published the nation’s most celebrated writers of natural history as they capture the essence of the British countryside.

From Yorkshire to Belfast, Orkney to Cumbria, and Gwynedd to the Scottish Highlands, exquisitely written and softly observed snapshots emerge – of fishes lurking in dusky pools, of age-old trees beneath deep blue skies, of lives being lived alongside the ebbs and flows of the natural world.

Bringing together the finest contributions to the column from recent years, Under the Changing Skies is an essential companion for all those with a deep love for the British countryside, charting its subtle changes over the course of the seasons.

With contributions from Cal Flyn, Mark Cocker, Josie George, Nicola Chester, Lev Parikian, Amy-Jane Beer, Kate Bradbury, Andrea Meanwell and many others.

Here is an extract:

2024 Wainwright Prize Winners Announced

The winners of the 2024 Wainwright Prize were announced on Wednesday evening at Camley Street Natural Park, an urban nature reserve in the heart of London, with the event live streamed by The Wildlife Trusts.

The Wainwright Prize is awarded annually to books which most successfully inspire readers to embrace nature and the outdoors and develop a respect for the environment. This year’s winning books highlight the exploration of nature on a global scale through journeys of migration, finding beauty in the everyday, and celebrate the deep connections between humanity and nature through powerful storytelling.

THE 2024 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE WINNERS ARE:

Book Launch: The Lie of the Land by Guy Shrubsole

Last night we hosted the launch of The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside? by Guy Shrubsole.

Top Five Places to Volunteer this year

-by Carol Donaldson

In celebration of the publication of my book The Volunteers: A memoir of Conservation, Companionship and Community (Summersdale 2024) I would like to invite you to experience the joys of volunteering for yourself by exploring my list of the five best organisations to volunteer for in the UK.

TCV The Conservation Volunteers

TCV offered me my first every professional conservation job and have long been the standard bearers for volunteering. They were also ahead of their time at being an inclusive organisation. TCV run hundreds of volunteer projects across the UK including the Green Gym where you can get fit and make friends while doing anything from edible gardening to dry stone walling

2. The RSPB

Not just for birders. When I was 21 I spent two life changing weeks guarding an osprey nests from egg collectors on the RSPB’s Loch Garten reserve. I came away knowing I wanted a career in conservation. The RSPB are one of the few organisations to still offer short term residential volunteer opportunities. You could find yourself at the tip of Kent wardening the RSPB Dungeness reserve or monitoring bittern in the reedbeds at Blacktoft Sands.

Guest Post: Chantal Lyons Shares the Top 5 Wild Boar rewilding sites in the UK to visit

We recently hosted an author talk with Chantal Lyons where she spoke about her book Groundbreakers: The Return Of Britain’s Wild Boar. In this book, Chantal moves to the boar’s stronghold of the Forest of Dean to get up close and personal with this complex, intelligent and quirky species, and she meets with people across Britain and beyond who celebrate their presence – or want them gone.

In this guest blog post, Chantal shares where in the UK you can visit these wonderful animals:

Extract: Infinite Life by Jules Howard

In Infinite Life: Revolutionary Story of Eggs, Evolution and Life on Earth, zoology correspondent Jules Howard takes the reader on a mind-bending journey from the churning coastlines of the Cambrian Period and Carboniferous coal forests, where insects were stirring, to the end of the age of dinosaurs when live-birthing mammals began their modern rise to power. Eggs would evolve from out of the sea; be set by animals into soils, sands, canyons and mudflats; be dropped in nests wrapped in silk; hung in stick nests in trees, covered in crystallised shells or secured by placentas.

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Author Talk: Groundbreakers: The Return Of Britain’s Wild Boar

A big thank you to everyone who came to Chantal Lyons’ talk here last week. Her book Groundbreakers explores the reintroduction of wild boar back in Britain after centuries of absence and asks what does this mean for us – and them?

Stanfords Event: ‘The Return of the Grey Partridge’ with Roger Morgan-Grenville

Thank you to everyone who attended our event with Roger Morgan-Grenville last night. It was a really interesting evening hearing all about his new book The Return of the Grey Partridge.

Book of the Month: Where the Wildflowers Grow

Our Book of the Month for June 2022 is Where the Wildflowers Grow: My Journey Through Botanical Britain by Leif Bersweden.

‘When was the last time you stopped and noticed a wild plant?’

An intriguing and timely exploration of the importance of Britain and Ireland’s plant life.

Leif Bersweden has always been fascinated by plants. From a young age, his afternoons were spent hunting for and cataloguing the plants in his local area. But it is a landscape that is fast disappearing.

Since the end of the Second World War, 97% of Britain’s wildflower meadows have disappeared. Climate change, habitat destruction and a declining pollinator population mean that the future for plant life looks bleaker than ever before. Many of us are also unable to identify, or even notice, the plants that grow around us.

Wainwright Prize shortlists announced for the best writing on UK nature and global conservation

Now in its eighth year, The Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing is awarded annually to the book which most successfully inspires readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world. Named after much-loved nature writer Alfred Wainwright, the prizes will be awarded to the work which best reflects Wainwright’s core values and are a celebration of the outdoors or a warning over the dangers to it across the globe.

The Wainwright Prize is split into two categories: