Description

A profound, powerful and moving collection of 100 letters from around the world responding to the climate crisis, introduced by Emma Thompson and lovingly illustrated by CILIP award winner Jackie Morris.

‘All power to this amazing project.’ JOANNE HARRIS
‘Makes sense of the climate crisis in a whole new way’ MAGID MAGID

How can we begin to talk about what is happening to the world? How can we explain to our children, and to ourselves, what the future of our planet might look and feel like?

Letters to the Earthis the beginning of a new conversation. One that attempts to answer some of these questions by listening to the voices of parents and children; politicians and poets; songwriters and scientists. Gathering together over 100 letters written in response to the climate emergency, each entry begins to give language to the unspeakable, and shows how our collective power is present when we are ready to slow down and listen to each other.

It’s natural to feel worried or concerned about what the future of the earth holds. These letters are an opportunity to reflect on our connection to the planet and each other in times of crisis. They are also an opportunity to act and respond to this crisis. To put pen to paper and make your voice heard.

Includes contributions from activist Yoko Ono, actor Mark Rylance, poet Kate Tempest, author Laline Paull, illustrator of The Lost Words Jackie Morris, novelist Anna Hope, environmental writer Jay Griffiths Green Party MP Caroline Lucas. , Booker prize Winning author Ben Okri and actor Freya Mavor.

Publisher Review

‘You need to read this book. It speaks truth to power and helps us make sense of this crisis in a whole new way.’ Magid Magid, Green Party MEP and environmental activist

‘As Sophocles and Shakespeare and Moliere and Ibsen and Brecht wrote plays as interventions into the major political crises of their worlds and of their time, so we now need our writers to record and reflect this probably biggest ever global challenge but, more than that, to help us understand what to do about it, how to prevent climate disruption from destroying so much that the west, the east, the north, the south have struggled to create over millennia. The time has always been now.’

David Lan, writer, producer and former Artistic Director of The Young Vic Theatre

‘The letters have moved, humbled and inspired us by their number, their depth of feeling, and their call to action. They do not shy away from the terrifying scale of the threat we all face, and offer no easy answers, but there is soul medicine in their words. We believe they constitute the largest creative response to the climate crisis the world has yet seen.’
Anna Hope, climate activist and author of Expectation

‘We must make public space to amplify this emergency, and use our skills, visions and stories to help imagine an alternative future.’
Lucy Davies, Executive Producer at The Royal Court Theatre