Books of the Month
July
July is a month of abundance. Meadows hum with bees and butterflies, dragonflies patrol ponds and rivers, young swallows master their first flights, and along our coasts, the last of the puffins prepare to leave after another breeding season.
To celebrate this wonderful time of year, we've chosen four Books of the Month to enjoy alongside the sights and sounds of a British summer.
Julian Hoffman
Lifelines
‘Magical... A book that will refresh your soul.’ Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive Farm
‘Hoffman’s writing is knockout beautiful’ - Keggie Carew
Set against the stunning landscapes of northern Greece, Lifelines follows Julian Hoffman and his wife as they build a new life among lakes, mountains and abundant wildlife. Blending nature writing, travel memoir and vivid observations of birds and the natural world, it is a thoughtful reflection on place, belonging and learning to feel at home in a new landscape.
The perfect summer read to take on holiday, an ideal non-fiction beach book.
Read this if you loved... ♡
Time and Tide by Fiona Stafford
Florence Wilkinson
Wild City
'A deeply evocative, highly descriptive and thoroughly enjoyable plunge into Britain's urban wildlife with an authentically hopeful message' Geographical Magazine
'Wild City is as bright and hopeful as a dandelion springing up through the crack between pavings' Hannah Bourne Taylor Author of Nature Needs You
Wild City is a fascinating work of nature writing that uncovers the remarkable wildlife living alongside us in Britain's towns and cities. Florence Wilkinson invites us to look more closely at the natural world on our doorsteps, exploring both the ingenuity of species adapting to urban environments and the challenges they face as our cities continue to grow.
Read this if you loved... ♡
The Accidental Countryside by Stephen Moss
Guy Shrubsole
The Lie of the Land
'Both dynamite and medicine' AMY-JANE BEER - Award winning Nature writer
'Timely and rousing' THE TIMES
A deserving winner of the 2025 Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing, Guy Shrubsole's powerful and thought-provoking book sees Guy travel across Britain to explore how some of our most cherished landscapes have been shaped, damaged and, in many places, restored. Blending nature writing, environmental history and stories of communities working to protect wild places, it offers a compelling vision for the future of Britain's landscapes and our relationship with the land.
Read this if you loved... ♡
The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes
Wendell Berry
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry is the most important writer and thinker that you have (probably) never heard of. He is an American sage - James Rebanks author of The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District
Our modern-day Thoreau ... He is unlike anybody else writing today -- Andrew Marr ― New Statesman
"I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
The poems of Wendell Berry invite us to stop, to think, to see the world around us, and to savour what is good. Here are consoling verses of hope and of healing; short, simple meditations on love, death, friendship, memory and belonging; luminous hymns to the land, the cycles of nature and the seasons as they ebb and flow. Here is the peace of wild things.
Read this if you loved... ♡
Dwell by Simon Armitage