Nature’s Ghosts

What history can teach us about how to avoid ecological catastrophe

‘Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.’ Chris Packham

For thousands of years, humans have been the architects of the natural world. Our activities have permanently altered the environment – for good and for bad.

In Nature’s Ghosts, award-winning journalist Sophie Yeo examines how the planet would have looked before humans scrubbed away its diversity: from landscapes carved out by megafauna to the primeval forests that emerged following the last Ice Age, and from the eagle-haunted skies of the Dark Ages to the flower-decked farms of more recent centuries.

Uncovering the stories of the people who have helped to shape the landscape, she seeks out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found. And she explores the timeworn knowledge that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth.

Along the way, Sophie encounters the environmental detectives – archaeological, cultural and ecological – reconstructing, in stunning detail, the landscapes we have lost.

Today, the natural world is more vulnerable than ever; the footprints of humanity heavier than they have ever been. But, as this urgent book argues, from the ghosts of the past, we may learn how to build a more wild and ancient future.

Reviews

‘Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.’ Chris Packham

'A wondrous book and a ticket for environmental time travel.' Tristan Gooley

'Urgent and utterly compelling.' Lewis Dartnell

‘Essential, intelligent reading. Sophie is one of the brightest, best-informed and most balanced contributors to the big debates.’ Patrick Barkham

'Carefully and elegantly traces the complex histories of humanity's changing relations with land and wildness. … Joyful.' Rebecca Wragg Sykes

‘Offers insights that could help shape a better informed and more constructive debate … Concludes with determination and hope.’ The Spectator

'Beautiful and necessary: Yeo will make you see the land with new eyes.' Ben Rawlence

'Fascinating, deeply researched and breathtaking in its scope.' Guy Shrubsole

'A thrilling work of investigative writing.' Lee Schofield

'Important and inspiring.' Helen Rebanks

'A beautifully-told journey through time and place.' Henry Mance

‘Vivid and urgent. A powerful new voice.’ Mary-Ann Ochota

‘Captivating. Enriched by luminous ideas and forward-thinking passion.’ Tiffany Francis-Baker

'A tour de force.' Benedict Macdonald

'As textured and layered as the lost landscapes through which Yeo transports us.' Jon Dunn

'Fascinating. A book that, in a thrilling way, makes you feel small.' Patrick Galbraith

‘A book of overwhelming, hopeful humanity.’ Harriet Rix

'Poignant … Yeo reveals how letting nature take its course might not always be the best way forward.' Geographical Magazine, Book of the Month