Books
Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meanings
Natalie Lawrence
Published by W&N
Out 29th August 2024
We have always created and destroyed monsters. They give form to what we don't wish to know or understand; to our anxieties and irrational terrors. They have helped us manage the extraordinary complexity of our minds and deal with the challenges of being human. In ENCHANTED CREATURES, Natalie Lawrence delves into the dark histories of creatures we have imagined over 15,000 years of history: from strange beasts carved in Palaeolithic caves and hybrid snake women, to deep-sea leviathans and apocalyptic dino-monsters. She reveals what lies beneath the monstrous menagerie that has shaped our minds, our societies and how we see our place in nature. Understanding our monsters allows us to understand ourselves, perhaps the most important quest there is.
'Beautifully written, completely engaging and dazzlingly wide-ranging, Enchanted Creatures is underpinned by great intellectual brilliance and a masterful command of detail and theory' - Julia Lovell (prize winning author and scholar)
Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence
Paco Calvo with Natalie Lawrence
The Bridge Street Press, Little Brown
While plants may not have brains or move around as we do, cutting-edge science is revealing that they have astonishing inner worlds of an alternate kind to ours. They can plan ahead, recognise relatives, assess risks and make decisions. They can even be put to sleep. If you can look in the right way, a world full of drama unfurls.
Planta Sapiens offers an imaginative leap into a world that is so close and yet so alien - one that will expand our understanding of our own minds - and our place in the world.
"We are unimaginable without plants, yet surprisingly blind to their powers and behaviours. Planta Sapiens weaves science and history into an absorbing exploration of the many ways that plants rise to the challenge of living."
- Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life
“Fascinating" - Michael Pollan, author of This is Your Mind on Plants via Twitter
"Planta Sapiens presents ‘fertile possibilities’ to the public and in doing so it has put science on notice... We should be delighted with Professor Calvo’s seeding of scientific curiosity for the hope that it offers.” —Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the Trees
"A bold and brave paean to our planet’s ligneous, leafy kingdom" - Jackie Higgins, author of Sentient, in The Telegraph
"a genuinely mind-expanding book" - P.D. Smith, author of City: A Guidebook for the Modern Age, in The Guardian
"an impressive exploration and dazzling insight into the lives of plants" - Reaction Book Digest
Feathers and Eggshells, The Bird Journal of a Young London Girl,
Natalie Lawrence
Brambleby Books, 2005
Natalie had always had a passion for wild birds as a teenager. Here she takes us on an extended tour of her favourite bird watching area - Hampstead Heath in London, a haven for wildlife.
From the mating dance of the Great Crested Grebe to the delicacy of the Treecreeper's beak, she reveals the beauty and diversity of the local bird life using drawings and photographs, prose and poetry. This is a jewel of a book, the kind of small volume that all bird lovers will surely wish to own, indeed treasure. It reveals a wealth of beautiful things, and as such, is an inspiration for young and old alike.
'I absolutely loved everything about this book and only wish that it had been around to inspire me as a young teenager.'
--Jenny Steel, Ecologist and writer
'This book sees Natalie's skills blossoming. It reveals a strong artistic streak that enables her to depict in illustrations, photographs and poetry what she sees with imagination and clarity. Most of all, it is a love affair with the place and the wildlife that have enchanted her since she was a child. I hope you too will be inspired by the heartfelt passion of Feathers and Eggshells.'
--Derek Niemann, RSPB