It is one of the great stories of science, and Ferguson tells it well.

Ferguson offers lucid accounts of the reasoning behind important leaps of insight, but it’s the little details that delight.

Ferguson manages to walk us through the most amazing research. She is as interested in the quirky intellectual temperaments of astronomy’s pioneers as in their discoveries.

Modern bookshelves are filled with stories of cosmic discovery. Occasionally, however, an author comes along who dares to describe how science works, who dares to find its underbelly and remind us that the romance and pleasure of cosmic discoveries lies not necessarily in experimental results but in the journey of measurements that led to them. Such an author is Kitty Ferguson, a musician turned science writer, who is distinguished as one who can explain complex things – from the life and times of cosmic objects like black holes to the life and times of cosmic physicists such as Stephen Hawking.

Music, more than any of the other arts, is expressed in numbers – measurements of differences in pitch and time. I’m no scientist, but I know what I like, and I found Measuring the Universe exciting, entertaining, and even enthralling.

Ferguson turns men of science into men of fascination.

Ferguson brings a lively, infectiously enthusiastic tone and historical perspective to measuring the universe. A very readable and enjoyable book.

Every now and again a ray of sunshine lifts the usual gloom-and-doom of environmental crises and this witty, warm and refreshingly honest tour of the netherworld of modern life offers a particularly bright one ... Andrew Blackwell wades into the world's worst pollution hotspots with an engaging combination of curiosity and open-mindedness. This is much more than a guide book to ecological devastation. It is a moving and often hilarious story of human dignity rising above unimaginable squalor

There is a dearth of good and comprehensive books on a subject that can seem too complicated and depressing for any single tome. Callum Roberts has now provided one ... there is no quibbling with the evidence of marine horrors that Mr Roberts presents

It's probably a bit too soon to start talking about candidates for books of the year. But Callum Roberts' latest offering should already be considered a strong contender. Roberts is that precious pearl: a practising scientist who not only knows his field inside out, but also understands how to write compelling, persuasive non-fiction

A lovely book

As relief and instruction, I haven’t read a more entertaining and endearing book on matters biological than Dave Goulson’s

In bringing food more directly onto the 'plate' of those who think about buildings and cities, she has done us all a great service

Emotional and resonant… Sharp, funny and sad in equal measure

Written with the same passion and wit that punctuated his reviews for the likes of NME, Coleman shares his journey to reconnecting with the soundtrack of his life

I can’t tell you how good it is but I’ll try… It’s a superb analysis

A warm, witty and very candid book

The book offers experiences and, for anyone whose responsiveness to the world has slackened, a reminder of how full experience can be.

Tim Dee has a deep feeling for the natural world and an ability to celebrate it in ways that seem fresh and new.

[Dee] writes so well, and so personably, that he casts a disarming spell over his readers.

[Dee] is at once a naturalist, environmentalist, journalist, historian and diarist. Dee’s rich writing delights as he imparts his considerable research and observations about life and the state of the world

[It] belongs in the tradition of 'nature writing', but works with it too putting its beautifully written sentences in the service of description and evocation, but using them to frame a serious conversation about environmental preservation and its opposites; it’s a deeply attractive book and also an important one.

Felt very deeply and pondered very wisely, it takes four areas of the planet and tells their story in ways that bring the plight (and delight) of the earth as a whole within reach.

A lyrical, poetic reflection on our relationship with the natural world.

This profound work by Tim Dee is as creative and original as anything on the Man Booker shortlist and arguably more “useful”... The book’s reach is extraordinary.

[A] marvellous new memoir.

An enthralling and unexpected book of what we have made of the natural world

This is nature writing at its finest

With the eye of a birdwatcher and the soul of a poet, Dee meditates on our green spaces and what we have made of them

Dee’s rich writing delights as he imparts his considerable research and observations about life and the state of the world

Charged with meaning and lyrically luminous, Four Fields is an unquantifiable work – and an unmissable one