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The Secret Life of the Owl by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Animals & Nature
'Dusk is filling the valley. It is the time of the gloaming, the owl-light. Out in the wood, the resident tawny has started calling, Hoo-hoo-hoo-h-o-o-o.' There is something about owls. They feature in every major culture from the Stone Age onwards. They are creatures of the night, and thus of magic. T ...Show more
The Sheep's Tale - The Story of Our Most Misunderstood Farmyard Animal by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Animals & Nature
A warm and personal biography of the sheep by one of our most celebrated nature writers.Everybody thinks they know everything about sheep, because there is nothing to know. They are stupid, noisy, cowardly ('lambs to the slaughter'), and they're 'sheepwrecking' the environment.Or maybe not. Contrary to ...Show more
The Sheep's Tale: The story of our most misunderstood farmyard animal by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Animals & Nature
A warm and personal biography of the sheep by one of our most celebrated nature writers - author of multiple Sunday Times bestsellers and twice winner of the Wainwright Prize for nature writing. Everybody thinks they know what sheep are like- they’re stupid, noisy, cowardly (‘lambs to the slaughter’), a ...Show more
The Soaring Life of the Lark by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Non-Fiction
"How to describe the ecstatic song of larks? How the writers and poets have tried..."Skylarks are the heralds of our countryside. Their music is the quintessential sound of spring. The spirit of English pastoralism, they inspire poets, composers and farmers alike. In the trenches of World War I they wer ...Show more
The War Behind the Wire: The Life, Death and Glory of British Prisoners of War, 1914-18 by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: WWI & WWII
On capture, British officers and men were routinely told by the Germans 'For you the war is over'. Nothing could be further from the truth. British Prisoners of War merely exchanged one barbed-wire battleground for another. In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, ...Show more
The War Behind the WireThe Life, Death and Glory of British Prisoners of War, 1914-18 by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Military
On capture, British officers and men were routinely told by the Germans 'For you the war is over'. Nothing could be further from the truth. British Prisoners of War merely exchanged one barbed-wire battleground for another.In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, ...Show more
The Wild Life of the Fox by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Animals & Nature
"I adore the fox for its magnificence; I hate the fox for killing my chickens.To love and loathe the fox is a British condition."The fox is our apex predator, our most beautiful and clever killer. We have witnessed its wild touch, watched it slink by bins at night and been chilled by its high-pitched sc ...Show more
The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Nature
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER by 'Indisputably, one of the best nature-writers of his generation' (Country Life) BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' Written in diary format, The Woodis the story of English woodlands as they change with the seasons. Lyrical and informative, steeped in poetry and folklore, The ...Show more
The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Science & Natural History
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' from 'indisputably, one of the best nature-writers of his generation' (Country Life)Written in diary format, The Woodis the story of English woodlands as they change with the seasons. Lyrical and informative, steeped in poetry and folklore, Th ...Show more
Where Poppies Blow by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: Animals & Nature
The natural history of the Western Front during the First World War by the author of MEADOWLAND, winner of the 2015 Wainwright Prize Where Poppies Blow is the unique story of the British soldiers of the Great War and their relationship with the animals and plants around them. This connection was of prof ...Show more
Where Poppies Blow by John Lewis-Stempel
Category: History
Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writingThe natural history of the Western Front during the First World War'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.'During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans had lived for centuri ...Show more
Wood in Winter by JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL
Category: Poetry
One for those of us who love tales of the natural world, and who enjoy seasonal woodland walks when things lie deep and crisp and even. John Lewis-Stempel's The Wood in Winter is a beautiful piece of nature writing about the life of a wood in bleak midwinter, tying in old festivals and traditions which ...Show more