Description

Lose yourself in the beauty of nature this winter…

A ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

For readers of George Monbiot, Isabella Tree and Robert Macfarlane – an urgent and lyrical account of endangered places around the globe and the people fighting to save them.

‘Powerful, timely, beautifully written and wonderfully hopeful’ Rob Cowen, author of Common Ground

All across the world, irreplaceable habitats are under threat. Unique ecosystems of plants and animals are being destroyed by human intervention. From the tiny to the vast, from marshland to meadow, and from Kent to Glasgow to India to America, they are disappearing.

Irreplaceable is a love letter to the haunting beauty of these landscapes and their wild species. Exploring coral reefs and remote mountains, tropical jungle, ancient woodland and urban allotments, it traces the stories of threatened places through local communities, grassroots campaigners, ecologists and academics.

Julian Hoffman’s rigorous, impassioned account is a timely reminder of the vital connections between humans and nature – and all that we stand to lose. It is a powerful call to arms in the face of unconscionable natural destruction.

*****

‘A terrific book, prescient, serious and urgent’ Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun

‘Unforgettable. At a time when the Earth often seems broken beyond repair, this courageous and hopeful book offers life-changing encounters with the more-than-human world’ Nancy Campbell, author of The Library of Ice

‘Wonderful, tender and subtle, beautifully written and filled with a calm authority’ Adam Nicolson, author of The Seabird’s Cry

*Highly Commended Finalist for the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation 2020*

Publisher Review

if you read one book this year, make it Julian Hoffman's Irreplaceable * Shiny New Books * A powerful hymn to humanity engaging with nature...[a] remarkable, illuminating book. * Irish Times * A powerful, tender, inspiring clarion call to save the places that matter, right across the globe. * Nature's Home * Lyrical and hugely intelligent * New Statesman * A passionate and lyrical work of reportage and advocacy. * Guardian * If the pen really is mightier than the sword, then Julian Hoffman is a knight errant, looking for trouble, a champion of underdogs. * Caught by the River * An impassioned account of the importance of Nature in our lives, and a timely reminder of the need to take action in the face of unprecendented destruction of the natural world. * The Countryman * The power of Hoffman's book lies in the reporting: he doesn't deal - as many environmentalists do - in generalities and alarmist warnings about what lies ahead for the world, but in the specifics of the here and now. * Evening Standard *