We asked our community members to share their favourite nature and environmental books with us so we could get some top tips for summer reads, and share it for our wider audience to enjoy too! We ended up with a super diverse list of books – some fiction, some non-fiction, some new, some old – featuring a range of topics, all of which had made some kind of impact on those suggesting them, and even changed some of their behaviour patterns. Books have an amazing ability to change the world, and here’s a list of some of the ones that have changed ours:
Mo Wilde – The Wilderness Cure
I’ve always been a very basic forager – nettles, dandelions, blackberries and wild garlic, and mussels with my Grandad when I was little. Having become very interested in food sovereignty, I have become fascinated with growing food and foraging, and this book took that one step further.
In this book, Mo does a ‘wild food year’ where she only eats foraged food. I’ll be honest, at times it sounds absolutely bleak, but the feeling of completing it, and how she describes feeling, would be been worth the challenging times. I felt so inspired and I know I’ll carry so much of this book with me for the rest of my life.
– Hannah
Garden Jungle – Dave Goulson
I love the way that the book brings the wildlife in your back garden to life and celebrates creatures that don’t get enough love.
Favourite fact from the book: Earwigs have two penises, if they are disturbed during sex, they can snap one off to keep fertilising the female while they make a quick getaway.
– Ellen
Wilding – Isabella Tree
Such a fantastic insight into Britain and it’s changing relationship to nature.
Rewilding is such a hot topic and Wilding is a great addition to the conversation.
– Lucy
Deer Man: Seven Years in the Forest – Geoffroy Delorme
This is my absolute favourite.
It’s a non-fiction book about a man who goes to live with roe deer in the forest and it changes your perspective on the habitats and human impact we have on nature.
– Lucy
Entangled Life – Merlin Sheldrake
I already thought that mushrooms were super cool but reading this book made me realise how much we can learn from mushrooms in how they relate to eachother and other species and the expansiveness and resilience they have.
It’s one of those reads that’s science told in a way of a story or journey almost and I love that as a combo. Also very accessible if you’re not into science too. Plus there’s an adorable picture of a truffle hunting dog!!
– Glesni
Swimming with Seals – Victoria Whitworth
I loved ‘Swimming with Seals’ by Victoria Whitworth which is about swimming in the seas around Orkney. It’s also about connection and community and how the author finds an escape in her swimming from her failing marriage.
There’s a lot of folklore and history in there as well, but most of all it makes you want to go swimming in the cold.
– Christina
Lanny – Max Porter
Lanny by Max Porter is such a beautiful book about an English village and a lost boy, and the Greenman figure of Dead Papa Toothwort. It is a book in which the countryside feels alive and part of the story, and it makes you feel connected to the land.
I read it in a day and everyone I’ve recommended it to loves it as well.
– Christina
English Pastoral – James Rebanks
One of my favourites is English Pastoral by James Rebanks, a view of UK agricultural history, the role that commercial farming has played in depleting biodiversity in the UK and what can be done to reverse that.
A heartbreaking vision of all we have lost that still manages to end with hope for the future. Left me in tears! Happy and sad tears!
– Ella
Have we missed your favourite nature or environmental book off of our list? Drop us a DM on your favourite social media platform so we can add it to our must-read list!
