Elegy For a River

Oct 26, 2024 2:32 AM

Author:Tom Moorhouse

Elegy For a River

A DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEK: 'particularly enjoyable'

'Somehow laugh-out-loud funny - passionate, warm and full of fascinating insights into the eccentric world of the field naturalist.' - Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

Water voles are small, brownish, bewhiskered and charming. Made famous by 'Ratty' in The Wind in the Willows, once they were a ubiquitous part of our waterways. They were a totem of our rivers. Now, however, they are nearly gone. This is their story, and the story of a conservationist with a wild hope: that he could bring them back.

Tom Moorhouse spent eleven years beside rivers, fens, canals, lakes and streams, researching British wildlife. Quite a lot of it tried to bite him. He studied four main species - two native and endangered, two invasive and endangering - beginning with water voles. He wanted to solve their conservation problems. He wanted to put things right.

This book is about whether it worked, and what he learnt - and about what those lessons mean, not just for water voles but for all the world's wildlife. It is a book for anyone who has watched ripples spread on lazy waters, and wondered what moves beneath. Or who has waited in quiet hope for a rustle in the reeds, the munch of a stem, or the patter of unseen paws.

Praise for Tom Moorhouse:

'The pages of this book are shot through with quicksilver light reflected from wet fur - not a lament for our rivers but a chorus of hope for their future.' - Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path

'Beautiful and important. Tom's book is extraordinary in its gentle curiosity and sympathy for his subjects. I love this book.' - Sir Tim Smit KBE, Executive Vice-Chairman and Co-founder of the Eden Project

'Terrific. Lightly but beautifully written. Very moving. Water voles are adorable little beasts. They are also tough, randy and stroppy, as Tom Moorhouse makes clear in this wry, amusing account of the often bloody, painful and frustrating business of conservation fieldwork. 'I hold stubbornly to optimism,' he declares, and his Elegy for a River demands that we do the same.' - Christopher Somerville, walking correspondent for The Times and author of The January Man

Reviews

'Engaging and urgent'

—— Nature

'The Hidden Universe is a smooth read ... biological facts are leavened by personal stories Antonelli tells of his "adventures" as a botanist traveling the world in search of plants.'

—— NewCity Lit

'For anyone who still needs winning around to our planet's beauty - and wants to know how we can save it - this is the book they should read.'

—— The Guardian

Beautifully written ... a very thought-provoking volume. Linden manages to weave history, science, and narrative together in a compelling way

—— Science

Impressive ... Linden takes a penetrating historical view

—— The New York Times

Fascinating

—— NPR

Invaluable

—— Washington Post

Linden expertly and succinctly describes the natural cycles that control climate and the many ways they interact

—— Nature

Should be required reading for policy makers across the globe

—— Doug Macdougall , Chronicle of Higher Education

Fascinating-a tour de force. Linden has accumulated a greater comprehension of paleo-climatic and oceanographic issues than all but a very few scientists. I have nothing but admiration for this book

—— George Woodwell, founder of the Woodwell Climate Center and former president of the Ecological Society of America

In-depth, expertly researched, eminently readable ... Linden combines analysis with solutions as to where humanity should and may go, and those solutions should surprise, enrage, and enlighten readers... Fire and Flood should be on every person's bookshelf

—— Laure Hiatt , Library Journal

A hard-hitting study of contemporary climate change, exploring how science, business and public perception have become dangerously misaligned ... Linden cuts through the thickets of information to deftly guide the reader towards knowledge that is urgently required in this troubling age

—— BBC History

Refreshing... Eugene Linden tells a sorry story of good intentions backed by serious research

—— The Energy Mix

Linden's aim is true and, even if he doesn't name names, his analysis of the financial industry's role in the climate crisis is fresh... Fire and Flood stays on the shelf

—— Literary Review

Like stepping into a new kind of Alice in Wonderland. The perfect mixture of revelation, curiosity, science, beautiful prose and buckets full of wonders

—— Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World

A cornucopia of wonders... a fascinating reminder of the humbling truth that most of what happens among life forms on Earth is beyond our ken

—— David Quammen, author of Spillover

An expansive, constantly revelatory exploration of the biosphere's sensorium... Ed Yong is my favourite contemporary science writer

—— William Gibson, author of Neuromancer and The Peripheral

Every page finds the reader mouthing quiet whoa's, as the world she thought she knew opens out into a hundred others, improbable, strange, and fabulous.

—— Mary Roach, author of Fuzz and Stiff

An Immense World took my hand and brought me on a journey I'll never forget. After reading this book, I'll never look at our planet the same way again

—— Clint Smith, author of How the Word is Passed

A whirlwind tour of animal perceptual abilities. A magnificent book

—— Frans de Waal, author of Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist

A tour of places that are, in essence, unknowable... Yet Yong...proves an outstanding guide... Beautifully written and painstakingly researched... this fantastic book leaves you wondering what else is left to be discovered

—— The Times, *Book of the Week*

Ed Yong's fascinating new book on the complex behaviours of creatures uncovers a universe of unfathomable beauty... Not since Oliver Morton's masterpiece of popular science Eating the Sun (2007) has a book so persuasively made the case that the Earth is greater than we know

—— New Statesman

A wonderful, wonder-full book

—— Literary Review

Both eye-opening and humbling

—— Radio Times

Remarkable... a delight, a book that prompts awe at the world around us

—— Sunday Times, *Summer Reads of 2022*

A tour of our own world as we may never experience it

—— Geography, *Book of the Month*

This book will reignite your sense of wonder and appreciation for our amazing planet

—— Woman's Own Magazine

Immaculately researched, elegantly written, iconoclastic and compulsively readable

—— The Times Literary Supplement

[Yong's] skills are on full display here, as he clearly and succinctly sketches out complex scientific and philosophical ideas in terms that are understandable for the lay reader

—— Prospect

Yong ... has a rare ability to break down overwhelming amounts of information into compelling, digestible detail. His An Immense World will make you question everything you thought you knew about how non-human animals perceive our shared world.

—— Heromag

One of President Barack Obama's 'favourite books of 2022'

—— President Barack Obama

Remarkable ... manages to be both a celebration of our species' genius for observation while also revealing how narrow and partial our 'sense' of things. Yong reveals how life is much greater than we can images.

—— New Statesman, *Books of the Year 2022*

Yong's colourful, character-filled writing reveals a multidimensional world that has hitherto remained hidden to us

—— Guardian, *Books of the Year*

This book welcomes us into previously unfathomable dimensions - the world as it is truly perceived by other animals

—— The Week Bookshop, *The best of 2022*

Ed Yong's book is a celebration of sights and sounds, smells and tastes, and the ways different animals exist on the planet we all share. Yong blends scientific study and elegant prose to transform textbook fodder into an excting read

—— Time Magazine

Brilliant at the futility of human action.

—— Sarah Crompton

A masterpiece of operatic proportions … What Powers means to explore is a sense of how we become who we are, individually and collectively, and our responsibility to the planet and to ourselves … A magnificent achievement: a novel that is, by turns, both optimistic and fatalistic, idealistic without being naïve.

—— Kirkus

His masterpiece.

—— Herald

You will careen through this book. The prose is driven. You don’t really get to draw breath … The writing is steel-edged, laser-sharp when Richard Powers wants it to be. When he sets out to nail meaning, it’s done. There are sentences you return to and wonder at.

—— Irish Times

This walk through the woods via words is a passionate paean to the natural world that prompts us to appreciate afresh our place on the planet.

—— i news

[I]t’s huge, it’s exciting, it’s wondrous … This really deserves to be read.

—— Bookmunch

The Overstory is a book you learn from.

—— Spectator

Dazzlingly written… Among the best novels I’ve read this decade… Despite its deep-time perspective, it could hardly be more of-the-moment

—— Robert Macfarlane , Guardian

A beautiful novel about humans reconnecting with nature in a fascinatingly, inventive world with colourful, rich characters, it will rekindle your love for nature

—— Asian Voice

An intriguing, powerful book

—— Maddy Prior , Daily Express

Absolutely blown away by this epic, heartbreaking novel about us and trees

—— Emma Donoghue

This extraordinary novel transformed my view of nature. Never again will I pass great tree without offering a quiet but heartfelt incantation of thanks, gratitude and wonder

—— Hannah Rothschild , Waitrose Weekend

A sweeping novel that skilfully intertwines many different stories of trees and people to create a paean to the hidden power and vital importance of the natural world

—— Country & Town House

Absorbing, thought-provoking and more than enough incentive to embrace your inner tree-hugger

—— Culture Whisper

The Overstory is filled with character and incident enough to engage anybody, but it's also filled with philosophy, science, poetry, and colour. It's a celebration of the world and humanity, but also tells of our coming doom. Perhaps above all it's a eulogy to trees. Eulogy is the right word because the novel celebrates the life, the beauty and wisdom of trees-but also their death. The novel also casts a cold-but loving-eye on humanity

—— Richard Smith , British Medical Journal

The Overstory has the mix of science and fiction that I so love; it widens my understanding and respect for the creatures who share this planet

—— KAREN JOY FOWLER

Stunning... It's been one of those rare books that has had a profound effect on me, and which has changed my perspective on life

—— Paul Ready , Yorkshire Post

Mind-boggling and visionary. The multi-stranded novel is a masterpiece in which science and poetry are deeply intertwined

—— Andrea Wulf, author of MAGNIFICENT REBELS , Guardian

A compelling read is that is near impossible to put down

—— Adoption Today

The Overstory is a prescient novel that urges us to take responsibility for our actions

—— Far Out

A masterpiece of storytelling at its very best. Powers weaves together science, poetry, nature and humanity so beautifully that it makes my heart ache and my mind fly

—— Andrea Wulf , Guardian

It is the imaginary world of a game, a world Zevin describes with the addict's ardour, which forms a universe even the sturdiest parent or antediluvian book-lover will be enticed into.

—— Big Issue

Friendship, love, loyalty, violence in America and the magic of invented worlds. Gorgeous

—— People

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a special book -- one that transports readers fully, as games do their players, into its immaculately crafted world

—— The Times

Woven throughout are meditations on originality, appropriation, the similarities between video games and other forms of art, the liberating possibilities of inhabiting a virtual world, and the ways in which platonic love can be deeper and more rewarding - especially in the context of a creative partnership - than romance.

—— New Yorker

Zevin probes at many of the themes that energize video games as a medium: their narrative depth, their therapeutic value, their casual violence, their toxic industry. And the possibility of living a better life in a virtual world

—— Wired

Zevin has the ability to make you care about her creations within paragraphs of meeting them... whose fates I consistently worried about when I occasionally had to put the book aside.

—— Financial Times

[An] engrossing, delightful novel... Zevin has the ability to make you care about her creations within paragraphs of meeting them... [Tomorrow] is rich with characters whose intertwined fates power the narrative

—— Financial Times

This book, with its respect for craft-the craft of love and games, or loving games-will remind you of how abundant one life is, how lucky we are to keep each other in our memories forever.

—— Kotaku

[I] raced through this pure wonder of a book in a few days

—— NINA MINGYA POWLES, author of Small Bodies of Water

A 2022 book that everyone should read

—— Pandora Sykes , Stylist LIVE

A must-read

—— Neil Druckmann

Anyone who reads Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow can't stop talking about it

—— Stylist

Utterly beautiful and endlessly hopeful, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a love letter to life, friendship, and creativity

—— The Skinny, *Books of 2022*

[The] 2022 book that everyone should read

—— Pandora Sykes , Stylist Live

My #1 book to recommend . . . incredible, like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon meets The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. It's about love and friendship and video games

—— Emma Straub

It feels right that the best video game novel out there is by a woman. Her story about the decades-long friendship and partnership between video game designers Sam and Sadie gets at so much about work, love and storytelling. It's a book that spawns great conversations.

—— Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch

In following Sam and Sadie's journey from Massachusetts to California and into the imagined worlds of their games, Zevin writes the most precious kind of love story

—— Time Magazine, Best Novel of the Year

Zevin's writing is poetic, the plot is entertaining, moving and gripping and the nods to real life video games make it all feel incredibly real

—— Skinny, *Books of the Year*

Reading this is almost like an invitation from Zevin to enter a game...with every scene and moment so carefully constructed. Just brilliant

—— Skinny, *Books of the Year*

I loved it

—— Sarah Keyworth

A hugely enjoyable novel about lives and loves mediated by technology

—— Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2023*

This playful, accomplished novel is a poignant celebration of friendship, love - and gaming

—— Daily Mail

An engrossing coming-of-age story

—— Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*

Epic in scale, with unforgettable characters, it breaks you heart and puts it back together

—— Daily Express, *Books of the Year*

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