I'm an avid reader and as someone who didn't study science beyond the age of 14 I really appreciate authors who write in a clear, concise and compelling way.
Below are some of the books that have inspired me over the years.
Nature Conservation by Peter Marren
The New Naturalist series of books are fascinating, interesting but often incomprehensible to someone like me. This book, which is a history of Nature Conservation in the UK, a follow on from an earlier book, Nature Conservation in Britain by Dudley Stamp in 1969.
Just understanding the history and motivation of the conservation organisations tells us a great deal about about how our natural environment has been managed (or mis-mananged) over the past 100 years.
Greatest insights for me: Nature Conservation didn't really get going in the UK until after WWII. You wonder how we have ended up where we are with some NGOs being 100+ yrs, so are they effective?
The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen
David Quammen in a journalist who points out that we have never heard the song of the Dodo. The book is an exploration of island bio-geography, a concept that decribes how island species evolve, adapt and die. Islands are a great way to study life and death and to understand the impacts of human interference apart from anything else.
Packed full of stories, details and personal accounts of visits to some of the world's biodiverse islands Quammen writes in simple language and takes you on a wonderful, inspiring and thought provoking journey.
John Lister Kaye is the founder/owner of Aigas in Scotland, a place to go on holiday and see wildlife. It's great, I've been there but only after I had found one of his books, The Seeing Eye and was consumed with jealousy. Lister Kaye is a naturalist and early in his career he decided he wanted to share his enthusiasm with others.
He writes about his perceptions of the natural world, our impact on it and how he is continously in awe and surprised by what he sees in his patch in the Scottish Highlands.
The Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley
The Wilderness Warrior of the title is Theodore Roosevelt, who on the one hand believed that it was right and proper to hunt big game but on the other hand did more than any other President in the US to protect the natural environment. And he was pretty unpopular for doing so.
He understood that the planet was a finite resource and fought against developers and big business that wanted to rip the heart out of the environment for profit.
He wasn't without contradictions but there is no denying his legacy. A really well researched book.
The View From Lazy Point by Carl Safina
Carl Safina is one of those people that describes the environment around him in such a way that you immediately want to go and experience what he is describing. This is a sort of journal about a year in and around where he lives.
He beautifully describes the return of the terns and his own passion for rod and line fishing but also the senseless, illogical laws that are decimating the horseshoe crab population.
I've since read all of Carl Safina's books and the other great one is Sea of Flames, the story and consequences of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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