Learn from Britain’s leading dragonfly expert how to invite dragonflies and damselflies into your garden and create the conditions for them to thrive.

In this compact and accessible wildlife primer, ‘Dragonfly Ambassador’ Ruary Mackenzie Dodds shows how to set up a tranquil garden haven for dragonflies, with straightforward, easy-to-follow guidance on preparing your pond, what plants to include in it, and how to manage and enjoy it.

With stunning colours and phenomenal flying abilities, dragonflies are beautiful creatures that are also vital to our ecosystem. This book outlines, too, how caring for something as specific and delicate as a dragonfly can provide a welcome respite from the everyday demands of life. We can, as always, learn so much from the natural world, even – and sometimes especially – from its smallest creatures.

Learn how to transform your garden into a haven for dragonflies and damselflies, nurturing your own mental health and protecting the planet as you do so. Every pond counts!

“A cartoon fried egg. An eye. The tiniest of black holes. It needed a professional eye to be seen, but once pointed out it was undeniable. My own little Big Bang. The beginning of it all.”

When Chitra Ramaswamy discovered she was pregnant, she longed to read something that went above and beyond a biology book or prescriptive manual; something that, instead, got to the heart of this thrilling, bewildering, overlooked, and often misrepresented experience.

Expecting is a creative memoir. Through nine chapters exploring the nine months of pregnancy and birth, Ramaswamy takes the reader on a physical, intellectual, emotional, literary, and philosophical journey through the landscape of pregnancy. Childbearing and childbirth are experiences defined both by the measurable monthly changes to one’s life and body, and by those immeasurable, often obscured and neglected changes in perspective which are accessed through metaphor, art, and emotion.

Ramaswamy bears witness to the individual and collective experience of pregnancy in this intimate yet expansive book of wild and lyrical essays, paying tribute to this most extraordinary and ordinary of experiences.

Past and present converge as Linda Cracknell doubles back to follow in the footsteps of others.

Across Norway, Kenya, the Isle of Skye and Lindisfarne, Doubling Back traces the contours of history. Following paths long mythologised by writers and relatives gone before, Linda Cracknell charts how places immortalised in writing and memory create portals; wrinkles in time and geography that allow us to walk in the footsteps of others.

Join Linda as she traverses the dangerous crevasses of the Swiss alps to retrace the mountaineering past of the father she barely knew, follows the escape route of a Norwegian scientist on the run in the second world war, or simply celebrates the joy found in the ‘friendly paths’ of her local, regular terrain, and the ritual of returning home.

Originally published in 2014 to rave reviews and serialised on BBC radio, this revised edition includes an account of a new journey through northern Scotland’s Flow Country, the peatland that is our chief Carbon store. As the century is almost one quarter through, Linda doubles back once more to reflect on our future on this fragile Earth.

‘A wronged woman’s voice is reclaimed in this gripping tale of revenge and romance; a ‘medieval Gone Girl’.

Highland Scotland was no place for a woman in the early 1500s. Life was turbulent, brutal, short. Chiefs waged war, while their sisters and daughters were traded as pawns in marriage. Catherine Campbell was one such young bride, betrothed to Lachlan Maclean and despatched from her fine home to join him on the Isle of Mull, to bear his sons and heirs.

But Lachlan proved to be nothing like the man of Catherine’s dreams, and she was forced to resign herself to enduring life with him for the sake of duty… Until the day when he threatened to take away the one thing she couldn’t sacrifice: her daughter.

Casting a fascinating light on the ruthless clan system, this compelling drama by one of Scotland’s best-loved novelists explores love, ambition, betrayal and revenge and highlights the precarious position of 16th-century women.

Poet and essayist Kenneth Steven takes us on a series of meditative quests in search of his “atoms of delight”—treasures, both natural and spiritual—through some of Scotland’s most beautiful landscapes.

The short pieces in this captivating collection, whose title pays homage to Scottish Renaissance writer Neil Gunn, invite readers to accompany Steven as he seeks out crystal-clear waters, a glimpse of an elusive bird, delicate orchids, plump berries, or pebbles polished by time and tide. Appreciative of the grace of silence and the value of solitude and simplicity, he takes journeys that prompt introspection and provoke memories as we pause, breathe, and discover alongside him the transformative power of nature’s small gifts and wild places.

This is an evocative book that will inspire you to pay close attention as you explore your environment and reflect on the fleeting moments of pure joy that nature has brought into your life. As you set out on your own pilgrimages, you will discover the extraordinary that can be found in the everyday when you take the time to look for it.

Permaculture needs all of us, and all of us need permaculture. 

Permaculture is a way of farming, gardening, or managing land that emphasises a reciprocal relationship with nature. It’s a design process that works with wildness, not against it. And it’s an essential resource in the fight of our lives: tackling the climate crisis.

Here, permaculture practitioner and poet Maya Blackwell writes with expertise and personal experience of the transformative power of permaculture for both people and the planet. As well as tracing its evolution – from its roots in Indigenous societies to the important role it plays in urban allotments today – you will discover how the practice could nurture individual and collective wellbeing. There are opportunities throughout for reflection, creativity and connection. These present valuable lessons we can all learn from the principles of permaculture, to help us build resilience and lean into the long-term process of trying new things, adapting failures and reaping all that we sow.

Whether you’re completely new to permaculture or someone with years of experience wanting to reconnect with its history and core values, this book contains tools for growth that bring rewards far beyond the garden.

‘Hearing you say my name was a way of seeing myself as I had never seen myself … you gave my name new meaning, new weight.’

Nerdy and shy, scholarship student Daniel de La Luna arrives at college nervous to meet his golden-haired, athletic roommate, whose Facebook photos depict a boy just like those who made Daniel’s school years hell.

Sam Morris is not what he had imagined, though. As the two settle into college life they drink tequila under the stars, go on long runs through snow-covered hills, explore freshman nightlife, and inch closer until they find themselves in love.

But their blissful first year is over all too soon. Daniel’s summer in his ancestral homeland of México becomes a rollercoaster of revelations, before his life is brutally upended by the unimaginable.

How We Named the Stars is a tale of love, heartache and learning to honour the dead. Daniel and Sam will leave you forever changed.

Discover the transformative power – for you and for wildlife – of building an outdoor sanctuary for all species to thrive in and enjoy.

In a hidden valley tucked into an unspoiled corner of Northumberland lies a naturalist’s garden, developed from scratch by award-winning gardener and author Susie White, her husband and friends. This is the story of how they created a remarkable oasis, a place as alive as it is beautiful.

Susie’s vision and passion unfold as she transforms a patch of untended ground into a wildlife-friendly haven, planted with flowering perennials, trees, herbs, vegetables, and a wildflower meadow. The spaces teem with life: owls and blackbirds, bats and mice, butterflies and bees, all drawn by pollen-rich flowers, ponds, and nesting sites. Second Nature takes us through the planning and construction, and describes how she designed the garden to blend harmoniously with her natural environment.

From the plants and wildlife to the structures that provide shelter and habitat, every element reflects Susie’s commitment to sustainability. Her account is filled with inspiration and practical advice for gardeners to learn from, and her deep appreciation for the natural world shines through.

“Tender, wise and beautiful.” The Times, book of the month

April 21, 1923. The SS Metagama is inching out of Stornoway harbor, Scotland, bound for Canada. On board are Finlay and Mairead; they are young and hopeful, leaving behind their struggling motherland to change their lives forever…

On the other side of the Atlantic, though, they face the realities of an uncaring industrial society. The effects of the Great Depression are inescapable, prejudice and division are rife, and though they remain bound by a shared past, their own lives soon diverge.

In an adopted country that is tense with both opportunity and loss, social progress and violent backlash, can Mairead and Finlay keep their promises to one another, to look only forward, and resist the constant pull of home?

From the author of the prize-winning As the Women Lay Dreaming comes a poignant and deeply evocative novel of the 20th-century emigrant experience in the New World. With lyrical prose and masterful storytelling, Murray paints a vivid portrait of the resilient Hebrideans-in-exile who struggled between holding on and letting go.

“This book is a must read … a uniquely raw and authentic voice.” –Maxine Peake

A killer stalks the streets of Leeds. Every man is a suspect. Every woman is at risk. But in a house on Cleopatra Street, women are fighting back.

It’s the eve of the 1980s. PC Liz Seeley joins the squad investigating the murders. With a violent boyfriend at home and male chauvinist pigs at work, she is drawn to a feminist collective led by the militant and uncompromising Rowena. There she meets Charmaine – young, Black, artistic, and fighting discrimination on two fronts.

As the list of victims grows and police fail to catch the killer, women across the north are too terrified to go out after dark. To the feminists, the Butcher is a symptom of wider misogyny. Their anger finds an outlet in violence and Liz is torn between loyalty to them and her duty as a police officer. Which way will she jump?

Ajay Close combines the tension of a police procedural with the power and passion of the women’s lib movement. By turns emotional, action-packed and darkly funny, What Doesn’t Kill Us reveals just how much the world has changed since the 1970s – and how much it hasn’t.