Hydrology & the hydrosphere

'Remarkable'OBSERVER

'Deeply profound… this is no ordinary memoir' THE TIMES

‘Astounding’ ADAM FARRER

‘Brave and luminous’ SARAH LANGFORD

‘Mesmerising’ POLLY ATKIN

‘Beautifully written’ YORKSHIRE POST

‘Steadfastly honest’ GEOGRAPHICAL

A memoir of grief, nature and ancestry in rural Yorkshire.

Ponds and pools are a common feature of our landscape – there are at least ten times as many ponds as lakes in the UK – and they are also important wildlife habitats. This book provides a comprehensive and detailed account of these freshwater habitats.

Triumphs and disasters in the deep sea

This is a journey through time and water, to the bottom of the ocean and the future of our planet.

LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2022

‘A remarkable and powerful book, the rarest of things … Nicolson is unique as a writer … I loved it’ EDMUND DE WAAL

Few places are as familiar as the shore – and few as full of mystery and surprise.

A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEARAN OBSERVER BEST ART BOOK OF 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2022

‘This is a wonderful book. A lyrical journey into the natural and unnatural world’ Patti Smith

Winner of the 2020 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award for nonfiction and the 2019 NSW Premier's History Awards for general history

‘Wonderfully researched and beautifully written’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan

‘Succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of Longitude

Rich and strange from the tip of its title to its deep-sunk bones’ Robert Macfarlane

From the author of Leviathan, or, The Whale, comes a composite portrait of the subtle, beautiful, inspired and demented ways in which we have come to terms with our watery planet.

Shallow Seas are the most biologically rich and productive areas of the world ocean. This latest New Naturalist volume provides a natural history of this environment and its biological communities.

Another volume in the popular New Naturalist series, this book gives a comprehensive account of the natural history of Britain and Ireland’s inland waters, many of which are popular holiday destinations.

This delightful book records a year in the life of an essentially English waterscape, one that is home to a vast array of wildlife and natural habitat of the keen angler – the chalkstream.

The story of a man’s obsession with whales, which takes him on a personal, historical and biographical journey – from his childhood to his fascination with Moby-Dick and his excursions whale-watching.