Remembering the wood old days! Author says we need ‘small-scale circular economies’

NATURE  THE WOOD AGE  by Roland Ennos (William Collins £20, 336 pp) If your surname is Cooper, Carpenter, Wheelwright, Wainwright, Shipwright, Bowyer, Fletcher, Turner, Bowler, Sawyer or Forester, then one of your ancestors worked with hand tools and wood. One thing this wonderful book reminds you of is the resourcefulness of our forebears, who grew … Read more

WHAT BOOK would journalist and novelist Tom Bradby take to a desert island? 

WHAT BOOK would journalist and novelist Tom Bradby take to a desert island? Tom Bradby revealed he’s currently reading True Crime Story by Joseph Knox  Novelist would take Len Deighton Game, Set & Match trilogy to a desert island He said The Poldark series first gave him the reading bug By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 22:02 BST, 13 May 2021 … Read more

Author explores how nature provided hope throughout ‘the silence’ of 2020 in a fascinating new book 

NATURE BIRDSONG IN A TIME OF SILENCE   by Steven Lovatt (Particular £12.99, 160 pp) Now that lockdown is over (if you have faith to believe our regained freedoms will last and we’re not merely in the midst of a temporary reprieve), those who last year were suddenly able to hear the birds as they took … Read more

Fascinating account of the lives of Manx shearwaters in a nature book

NATURE SHEARWATER    by Roger Morgan-Grenville (Icon £16.99, 281 pp) On the island of Rum in Scotland, there is a mountain called Trollval: Old Norse for the Hill of Trolls. It’s said the name comes from the Norse seafarers who heard unearthly voices from underground, and concluded they were those of trolls. Actually the noise is … Read more

Paleoanthropologist says handshakes are not a learned cultural behaviour but part of our DNA 

ANTHROPOLOGY THE HANDSHAKE  by Ella Al-Shamahi (Profile £10.99, 176pp)  David Attenborough once found himself in a ‘potentially hairy’ situation in New Guinea when a remote tribe charged at him with spears. Ever the gentleman, Attenborough calmly extended his hand and said, ‘Good afternoon’. The tribe members pumped his hand up and down. Granted, this was … Read more