Author:Jonathan C. Slaght
The Times Nature Book of the Year 2020
Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
A Finalist for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award
'Remarkable. If only every endangered species had a guardian angel as impassioned, courageous and pragmatic as Jonathan Slaght' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding
'Gripping'Dave Goulson, author of A Sting in the Tale
Primorye, a remote forested region near to where Russia, China and North Korea meet in a tangle of barbed wire, is the only place where brown bears, tigers and leopards co-exist. It is also home to one of nature's rarest birds, the Blakiston's fish owl. A chance encounter with this huge, strange bird was to change wildlife researcher Jonathan C. Slaght's life beyond measure.
This is the story of Slaght's quest to safeguard the elusive owl from extinction. During months-long journeys covering thousands of miles, he has pursued it through its forbidding territory. He has spent time with the Russians who struggle on in the harsh conditions of the taiga forest. And he has observed how Russia's logging interests and evolving fortunes present new threats to the owl's survival. Preserving its habitats will secure the forest for future generations, both animal and human - but can this battle be won? Exhilarating and clear-sighted, Owls of the Eastern Ice is an impassioned reflection on our relationship with the natural world and on what it means to devote one's career to a single pursuit.
'Slaght makes the people, wildlife and landscape of the Russian Far East come alive. I haven't enjoyed a book on remote Russia as much as this since Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia'
Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia
'True epic. Powerful, passionate' Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast
Slaght has a rare gift for startling evocations of the natural world...A refreshingly old-school, tautly strung adventure
—— Helen Macdonald , GuardianExcellent...The brutality of human habitation is counterpoised with the brutality of the natural world. The reader becomes, like the author, "stunned by the quiet violence of this place."
—— Clement Knox , The TimesThis is a tale of man's endurance, determination and perseverance in search of this elusive and beautiful creature ... wonderful
—— Bill BaileyThe remarkable story of one man's heroic quest to save the astonishing fish owl. If only every endangered species had a guardian angel as impassioned, courageous and pragmatic as Jonathan Slaght.
—— Isabella Tree, author of WildingA gripping account of the author's obsessive quest to save one of the world's most magnificent birds.
—— Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex and author of A Sting in the TaleA vivid dispatch from the front line of conservation, Owls of the Eastern Ice is engrossing and uplifting; an inspiring story of vital work undertaken with utter determination in wild and distant places.
—— Horatio Clare, author of Orison for a CurlewSlaght's story reveals the patience and determination of a true conservationist. And the ears and eyes of a poet. Above all, he makes the people, wildlife and landscape of the Russian Far East come alive for armchair travellers. I haven't enjoyed a book on remote Russia as much as this since Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia
—— Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of SiberiaTrue epic. A powerful, passionate and highly readable reflection on the wildness both inside us and out there in the forest.
—— Charles Foster, author of Being a BeastA fascinating account of one man's quest to conserve the magnificent fish owl of Eastern Asia, this is a book that feels both urgent and relevant.
—— Christopher Skaife, author of The RavenmasterFrom the very first pages, Slaght grips readers with vivid language and tight storytelling ... The cast of characters he brings to life - both human and avian - illuminate the delicate symbiosis of the natural world and shed a welcome light on the remarkable creatures that are too little known. Top-notch nature writing in service of a magnificent, vulnerable creature.
—— KirkusA detailed and thrilling account of efforts to conserve an endangered species. . . Slaght evinces humor, tirelessness, and dedication in relating the hard and crucial work of conservation. Readers will be drawn to this exciting chronicle of science and adventure, a demonstration that wilderness can still be found.
—— Publishers WeeklyA thoroughly engaging read which will appeal both to those specifically interested in owls, as well as those with a wider interest in the natural world. Will make armchair and keyboard conservationists envious and uncomfortable in equal measures
—— John Gray, The International Owl SocietyThis is an epic tale of hangovers, violence and obsessive ornithology. It is a superb depiction of a far-flung corner of the world where bears, tigers and men battle with relentless environment and each other. It is a powerful antidote to saccharine nature writing; Slaght encounters such a host of pickled gritty characters that you could imagine the Coen brothers adapting it for the screen.
—— The Times Nature Book of the YearWonderful... If [COP26 organisers] picked it up in the jet-lagged early hours they might find their dreams haunted, as mine have been, by huge, endangered owls swooping low through their subconscious, reminding them what survival might mean
A sharply observed, deftly told tale of rupture and repair. In it, with characteristic wit and humanity, Bray shows us the necessity and the impossibility of preparing for disaster, and reminds us of both the fragility and capacity of love.
—— Jenn Ashworth, author of A KIND OF INTIMACY and FELLA beautifully realised story of a family falling apart under the pressures of our age.
—— i paperWarm, witty and well worth your time.
—— Autumn books round-up , HeraldA joy to read [...] her writing is really smart. The family's interactions are so well observed.
—— Natalie Jamieson , Times RadioBray's third novel is the finely drawn story of a marriage on the skids and a nuanced appraisal of the variegated impacts of climate change.
—— Best autumn books , Irish TimesA very funny book . . . prescient and poignant . . . [with] a believable and moving climax to a novel that captures the paranoia of our times.
—— i paperPropulsive, penetrating new novel about race, class, and climate change.
—— BBC CultureA very funny book.
—— i NewsA tremendously witty and enjoyable read
—— New Books MagazineAn absolutely gripping adventure story, exploring back through the changing vistas of our own planet's past. Earth has been many different worlds over its planetary history, and Thomas Halliday is the perfect tour guide to these past landscapes, and the extraordinary creatures that inhabited them. Otherlands is science writing at its very finest
—— Lewis Dartnell, author of ORIGINSOtherlands is one of those rare books that's both deeply informative and daringly imaginative. It will change the way you look at the history of life, and perhaps also its future
—— Elizabeth Kolbert, author of THE SIXTH EXTINCTIONThis stunning biography of our venerable Earth, detailing her many ages and moods, is an essential travel guide to the changing landscapes of our living world. As we hurtle into the Anthropocene, blindly at the helm of this inconstant planet, Halliday gives us our bearings within the panorama of deep time. Aeons buckle under his pen: the world before us made vivid; the paradox of our permanence and impermanence visceral. Wonderful
—— Gaia Vince, author of TRANSCENDENCEStirring, surprising and beautifully written, Otherlands offers glimpses of times so different to our own they feel like parallel worlds. In its lyricism and the intimate attention it pays to nonhuman life, Thomas Halliday's book recalls Rachel Carson's Under the Sea Wind, and marks the arrival of an exciting new voice
—— Cal Flynn, author of ISLANDS OF ABANDONMENTImaginative
—— Andrew Robinson , NatureThis study of our prehistoric earth is "beyond cinematic", James McConnachie says. "It could well be the best book I read in 2022
—— Robbie Millen and Andrew Holgate, Books of the Year , Sunday TimesIt's phenomenally difficult for human brains to grasp deep time. Even thousands of years seem unfathomable, with all human existence before the invention of writing deemed 'prehistory', a time we know very little about. Thomas Halliday's book Otherlands helps to ease our self-centred minds into these depths. Moving backwards in time, starting with the thawing plains of the Pleistocene (2.58 million - 12,000 years ago) and ending up in the marine world of the Ediacaran (635-541 mya), he devotes one chapter to each of the intervening epochs or periods and, like a thrilling nature documentary, presents a snapshot of life at that time. It's an immersive experience, told in the present tense, of these bizarre 'otherlands', populated by creatures and greenery unlike any on Earth today
—— Books of the Year , GeographicalEach chapter of this literary time machine takes us further back in prehistory, telling vivid stories about ancient creatures and their alien ecologies, ending 550 million years ago
—— The Telegraph Cultural Desk, Books of the Year , TelegraphThe largest-known asteroid impact on Earth is the one that killed the dinosaurs 65?million years ago, but that is a mere pit stop on Thomas Halliday's evocative journey into planetary history in Otherlands. Each chapter of this literary time machine takes us further back into the deep past, telling vivid stories about ancient creatures and their alien ecologies, until at last we arrive 550?million years ago in the desert of what is now Australia, where no plant life yet covers the land. Halliday notes the urgency of reducing carbon emissions in the present to protect our settled patterns of life, but adds: "The idea of a pristine Earth, unaffected by human biology and culture, is impossible." It's an epic lesson in the impermanence of all things
—— Steven Poole, Books of the Year , TelegraphThe world on which we live is "undoubtedly a human planet", Thomas Halliday writes in this extraordinary debut. But "it has not always been, and perhaps will not always be". Humanity has dominated the Earth for a tiny fraction of its history. And that History is vast. We tend to lump all dinosaurs, for example, into one period in the distant past. But more time passed between the last diplodocus and the first tyrannosaurus than has passed between the last tyrannosaurus and the present day. A mind-boggling fact. This is a glorious, mesmerising guide to the past 500 million years bought to life by this young palaeobiologist's rich and cinematic writing
—— Ben Spencer, Books of the Year , Sunday TimesA book that I really want to read but haven't yet bought - so I hope it goes into my Christmas stocking - is Otherlands: A World in the Making by Thomas Halliday. It sounds so amazing - a history of the world before history, before people. He's trying to write the history of the organisms and the plants and the creatures and everything else as the world grows from protozoic slime or whatever we emerged from. It sounds like an absolutely incredible effort of imagination. I think that Christmas presents should be books you can curl up with and get engrossed in and transported by - and Otherlands sounds like exactly that
—— Michael Wood, Books of the Year , BBC History MagazineBut, of course, not all history is human history, Otherlands, by Thomas Halliday, casts its readers further and further back, past the mammoths, past the dinosaurs, back to an alien world of shifting rock and weird plants. It is a marvel
—— Books of the Year , Prospect