The Moth Snowstorm - supporting booklist
Inspired by The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy, this month's Wild Reads theme celebrates insects and our memories of vanishing ecosystems.
Explore our supporting titles on the fascinating critters and birds that fill our skies and wildflowers and trees in which they find their home.
The Moth Snowstorm is also available to listen to as an audiobook.
Find out more about Wild Reads.
Much ado about mothing: a year intoxicated by Britain's rare and remarkable moths, by James Lowen
By hiking up mountains, wading through marshes and roaming by night amid ancient woodlands, James follows the trails of both Victorian collectors and present-day conservationists. Seeking to understand why they and many ordinary folk love what the general public purports to hate, his investigations reveal a heady world of criminality and controversy, derring-do and determination. From Cornwall to the Cairngorms, James explores British landscapes to coax these much-maligned creatures out from the cover of darkness and into the light.
Borrow Much ado about mothing →
Extraordinary insects: weird, wonderful, indispensable, by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson and Lucy Moffatt
A journey into the weird, wonderful and truly astonishing lives of the small but mighty creatures who keep the world turning.
Borrow Extraordinary insects →
Where the wildflowers grow: my botanical journey through Britain and Ireland, by Leif Bersweden
An intriguing and timely exploration of the importance of Britain and Ireland's plant life. Over the course of a year, Leif Bersweden goes on a journey around the UK and Ireland, highlighting the unique plants that grow there, their history and the threats that face them.
Borrow Where the wildflowers grow →
Silent Earth, by Dave Goulson
Insects are essential for life as we know it. As they become more scarce, our world will slowly grind to a halt; we simply cannot function without them. Drawing on the latest ground-breaking research and a lifetime's study, Dave Goulson reveals the shocking decline of insect populations that has taken place in recent decades, with potentially catastrophic consequences. He passionately argues that we must all learn to love, respect and care for our six-legged friends.
Irreplaceable: the fight to save our wild places, by Julian Hoffman
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 more than a love letter to the haunting beauty of these landscapes and the nightingales, lynxes, hornbills, redwoods and elephant seals that call them home.
Feral: rewilding the land, sea and human life, by George Monbiot
George Monbiot is one of the world's most celebrated radical thinkers. In 'Feral', he follows his own hunger for new environmental experiences, and through a riveting tale of possibility and travel with wildlife and wild people, shows why we need to change our policies in order to properly cherish the wild and our experience of it.
The wood for the trees: the long view of nature from a small wood, by Richard A. Fortey
Guided by his abiding love of nature and a lifetime of scientific expertise, Richard Fortey takes us on a journey through ecosystems and time. The book is the story of humankind meeting nature, an homage to the mesmerising interactions between flora, fauna and fungi.
Borrow The wood for the trees →
Empire of ants: the hidden worlds and extraordinary lives of Earth's tiny conquerors, by Olaf Fritsche and Susanne Foitzik
Ants have been walking the Earth since the age of the dinosaurs. Today there are one million ants for every one of us. The closer you get to ants, the more human they look: they build megacities, grow crops, raise livestock, tend their young and infirm, and even make vaccines. They also have a darker side: they wage war, enslave rivals and rebel against their oppressors.
Acclaimed biologist Susanne Foitzik has travelled the globe to study these master architects of Earth. Joined by journalist Olaf Fritsche, Foitzik invites readers deep into her world - in the field and in the lab - and will inspire new respect for ants as a global superpower.
Deeper into the wood, by Ruth Pavey
Interwoven with Ruth's candid descriptions of the practical challenges of land management are forays into the Levels' local history, as well as thoughtful portraits of its inhabitants both past and present. Accompanied throughout by the author's evocative hand-drawn illustrations, 'Deeper Into the Wood' is a lyrical and inspiring story; a potent reminder of nature's delicate balance and our responsibility.
Say goodbye to the cuckoo, by Michael McCarthy
A celebration of the migrant birds that herald spring and a stark warning that they may be fast disappearing.