A spellbinding nature diary that’s up there with the greatest… [Cocker] regularly follows up a beady description with a wild, glorious overview, followed by an astonishing fact or two… Hurrah for Mark Cocker! *****

Being a naturalist, Cocker’s great strength is in the breadth of his senses: his essays seem to cover almost everything he has seen, heard or smelled in the land around his home. He writes clearly, and with a style that has a ring of poetry about it without being pretentious or precious… Spending time with his acutely observant essays will convince many readers that the Great Barrier Reef and vast jungles of Africa can be understood best only by first understanding the startling drama, diversity and complicated natural dynamics of a humble corner of Britain.

If you’ve never read Mark Cocker, then you must. His style is sharp, selfless, and wonderfully evocative, his knowledge deep and wide-ranging but lightly borne, his curiosity joyful and infectious.

If you can’t get out to enjoy the spring weather, immerse yourself in the natural world with Mark Cocker… his writing transports you there.

If you already know Mark Cocker’s work, you’ll need no persuading to buy this – if you don’t, treat yourself to a very fine collection of nature essays.

A Claxton Diary is a collection of his finest essays written on wildlife and encounters with nature.

[Cocker] has a dream-like poetic edge, a touch of surreality that tips over into gentle humour… Cocker’s gift is that he can make you look – as he does – at blackbirds in a new way, or, shifting to the micro-scale, at ants bustling about in the cracks between paving slabs.

A master of short-form writing… Cocker combines forensic observation of minutiae with grander universal truths… Exquisite essential reading.

Wonderful.

Mark Cocker is one of the many modern nature writers who I admire... and his latest book, A Claxton Diary, is as well written as all his others.

Exciting to see economics strike out into the real world showing how trauma and chaos can yield raw truths about markets, monopolies and the state.

Breathtaking. An entertaining, fascinating, important reminder of the power of economics to shape all of our lives.

A must read for anyone feeling desperate about the state of world affairs today, Extreme Economies demonstrates with vivid clarity and humanity how those in the most challenging situations can prosper. Many economists are quite narrow in their thinking about life’s challenges, this book beautifully demonstrates why the world’s most interesting places force us to think more openly.

Richard Davies obviously made the kind of road trip many of us only dream of to write Extreme Economies. I tore through it. An economist who can write so well while at the same time explaining the economic principles so clearly is always a joy.

Markets, Mr. Davies engagingly shows, can make an extreme situation less extreme . . . a compelling portrait of markets functioning?and sometimes malfunctioning?in all sorts of conditions and cultures

We can't forecast the coming decades, but it is enlightening to look at extreme economies for clues what we may be in store for. Davies book is fascinating.

Engagingly written and genuinely interesting… fascinating reportage. Davies dives into corners of the world you don’t hear much about and conveys, briefly and clearly, how they work. Simultaneously entertaining, informative and balanced.

A gimlet-eyed look at developments in the global economy, in which interesting and sometimes ominous things are happening. Highly recommended, sobering reading for anyone interested in the economic future, for good and bad.

Extreme Economies makes sense of the forces shaping the future by describing what people do when pushed to their limits. This strategy of going to extremes pays off spectacularly. Taken together, the book's nine deep dives are a much needed reminder that an economy is not what happens when equations interact with data. An economy is what is what happens when people -- real people, people with names -- interact. Anyone who wants to learn economics, is learning economics, or pretends to know some economics should read this book.

In each location, Davies keeps his perspective on broad, and often disturbing, historical trends while celebrating the resourcefulness of the individuals and communities he profiles. . . This ambitious and thought-provoking guide helps to make sense of the economic future.

[A] worthwhile lesson, today more than ever. Much of the evidence from Davies’s book, a bottom-up look at what happens when disaster strikes, is encouraging: before long, individuals rebuild themselves and their livelihoods. Fashionable as it is to do it down, capitalism is remarkably resilient.

This book is genuinely extraordinary

Life affirming [...] an enrapturing journey through darkness, destructive behaviour and an urgency for light and happiness now

A powerful memoir

Timely and highly original

Brilliant and moving

The Consequences of Love is undoubtedly one of this year's most hotly-anticipated books, and with good reason

Brilliantly written and heartbreaking but also joyful and uplifting

Extraordinary . . . profoundly moving

A brave, lyrical, painful tale of bereavement, addiction, and the building of a new life

Superbly written. Beautifully written and utterly heartbreaking. Courageous, inspired, bleakly comic, extreme candour

Searing

Hodge's beautiful memoir is both a devastating, grief-fuelled account of her sister's death and a redemptive tale of an emotional reckoning

It's a vivid and oddly entertaining memoir, a hand plunged into the dark hole of grief . . . uncovers surprising treasures - most importantly, strength, resilience and love

Searing. A masterful writer with a gift for storytelling. Her prose is rich with detail, combining a sharp sense of place with escalating drama. A triumph

The most moving, most exquisitely written book about addiction, grief, loss and coming to terms with trauma even decades on. One that you will be thinking about, and remember long after finishing

One of the most beautiful memoirs I've ever read. This story will say with you long after you put the book down

I just turned the last page (reluctantly!). A bold, often brutal exploration of memory, grief and love. Full of hope and heart. I can't recommend it enough

A brave, brilliant book that is both beautiful and important. Read it then buy it for all your friends

Gavanndra's memoir The Consequences of Love is absolutely beautiful. It's compelling, heartbreaking, sweet, honest, fascination. I recommend it HIGHLY. I absolutely LOVED it.

This stunning exploration of grief is so well written and profoundly moving

An elegant study of grief and memory

Hodge pours heartbreak and love into the pages of a book that never pretends to know the answers, and is all the better for it

An eye-opening snapshot of the fashion world in '90s London

The most important story, perfectly told

Memorable, urgent, eloquent ... Rebanks speaks with blunt, unmatched authority. He is also a fine writer with descriptive power and a gift for characterisation ... English Pastoral may be the most passionate ecological corrective since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring