An ode to the humble hedgehog from a lifelong obsessive. Exploring what hedgehogs actually do and what they tell us about our need for wildlife and the changes in the British countryside, The Hedgehog's Dilemma travels from the Outer Hebridees via the American Hedgehog Festival, Sonic the Hedgeghog and Mrs Tiggywinkle, to a field in Shropshire, where Hugh Warwick's love of hedgehogs began.

Andy takes on a job as a freelance journalist with a local Tucson, Arizona paper. Her first " big" story is to cover an anniversary celebration at Berean Bible Church, where Andy attended as a child when her father was senior pastor. At the church, Andy learns that several members of the Ladies Quilting Circle have been victimized by possible pranks, which has Grandma Mattie's friend Liddy concocting a conspiracy theory. Andy gives it little thought and moves on to interviewing interim pastor Elliot Reed. Andy is taken aback by Elliot's good looks but still manages to argue with him about theology, although the mutual attraction is obviously strong. Just then, another quilting circle member falls victim to a near-fatal prank. Andy begins to wonder about Liddy's conspiracy theory and is asked by Elliot the next morning to help investigate when yet another prank occurs.

‘Glorious... Political, passionate, perceptive’ Robert Macfarlane An eye-opening exploration of the lines that cut through our countryside, from hedges to railways, and a passionate manifesto for reconnecting wildlife. Our landscape has been transformed by a vast network of lines, from hedges and walls to railways and power cables. In Linescapes, Hugh Warwick unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of these changes. As our lives and our land were fenced in and threaded together, wildlife habitats were cut into ever smaller – and increasingly unviable – fragments. Yet as Warwick travels across this linescape, he shows that we can help our flora and fauna to flourish once again. With his fresh and bracing perspective on Britain’s countryside, he proposes a challenge and gives ground for hope, for our lines can and do contain a real potential for wildness and for wildlife.

A creature from another dimension had gotten into her head, eviscerated her mind, and gouged out her soul. Now physicist Rhoda Mollo finds herself where she’d really rather not be, cast away on some far-flung shore of Any Now, trapped in a nightmare of the real and not real, slave to her own heresies. No matter how hard she tries she can no longer slip into that happy state that simply accepts reality as it appears to be. Her mind won’t let her—it has seen the illusion for what it is, the magic trick revealed. But she is set on her course of action. To play the hand she had been dealt, if indeed she had been dealt any hand at all. Her adversaries are the mysterious Seventh Day of the Veil, a pair of individuals seemingly revealed as gatekeepers to the predicament she now finds herself in. There will be no seeking then out. Pursuit would be fruitless. They must find her. And to achieve that Rhoda will have to play them at their own game. Any You is another mind-twisting journey through Any Now, exposing the dark nature of reality with far reaching consequences.

How does one become a recognized architect? Where does the inspiration come from and how is it transformed into buildings, streets and cities? With his Architectural Journal Rob Krier takes the readers on a fascinating journey, guiding one through pivotal moments of early stages of his career as an architect. With a sense of humour, empathy and charm Krier tells a story of his professional path, starting with holidays spent with his grandparents, images, colors and smells that shaped his future choices. He talks about his triumphs and stumbles, giving an intimate insight into the architectural profession, deprived of any pretence to eternal greatness and heroic narrative. The journal encompasses 15 formative years of Krier’s career, starting from architectural studies in Munich, through trips and temporary settlements in Luxemburg, Stuttgart and Lausanne. Krier’s memories are accompanied by theoretical texts. Here he touches upon architect’s responsibilities, importance of historical legacy and exhorts to boycott ugliness in the name of beauty. Striving for something else than pure functionality in architecture, Krier calls for poetical approach, so characteristic for his work, stating: Poetry is in the breath of the building, the aroma that exudes from all its nooks”. Rob Krier is one of the most influential architects and urban planners of the second half of the 20th century. His theoretical writings deal with the idea of town planning informed by traditional notions of harmony, civic space and community.

How our understanding of and relationship to hedgehogs reveals the complex interactions between culture, technology, bodies, conservation, and care for other animals. Across the globe, the bumbling hedgehog has been framed in a variety of ways throughout history—as a symbol of both good and bad luck, of transformation, of vengeance, and of wit and reincarnation. In recent years, it has also, in different parts of the world, been viewed as a pest for its predation on ground-nesting birds and has thus become a target for culling. In Hedgehogs, Killing, and Kindness, Laura McLauchlan explores how human actors have interacted with hedgehogs and other species through time and attends to the questions these interactions raise when it comes to ending and preserving life in the name of species conservation and wildlife rehabilitation. Grounded in rich empirical material and careful critique, Hedgehogs, Killing, and Kindness traces the author’s own more-than-human transformative experience and elucidates how care is shaped by and shapes various cultural and material forces. McLauchlan urges us to rethink and reflect on how cares are normalized, and at what and whose expense; what it might mean to care in more responsive ways; and finally, whether it is possible to kill with kindness in this rapidly changing and conflicting world. A valuable addition to the understanding and practices of multispecies ethnography, environmental anthropology, and the broader environmental humanities, this book sheds a necessary light on the fraught space between caring for and killing to care for other-than-human animals on our one precious planet.

From central Glasgow to rural Wiltshire, a husband-and-wife team track down Britain’s rarest and most enigmatic animals. 'Weasely my favourite book of the year.' Dave Goulson, author of Silent Earth A COUNTRYFILE AND WATERSTONES BEST NATURE BOOK OF 2023 Britain is teeming with wildlife, often in the most unexpected places. There are quarries where rare bats hang out with pot-smoking teens. In Glasgow’s urban parks water voles are thriving – without water. Our coastlines are bustling with grey and harbour seals. That’s the good news. The bad news is that a quarter of British mammals are at imminent risk of extinction. Tim Kendall and Fiona Mathews take us on a safari unlike any other. Armed with binoculars, a Thermos and, regrettably, an inexhaustible supply of puns, they travel from Scotland to the Isles of Scilly in search of their elusive subjects. You’ll find answers to questions you never thought to ask: Do pine marten droppings really smell like Parma Violets? Should we give squirrels access to family planning? And what do wild boar have in common with a certain royal? Black Ops and Beaver Bombing is a celebration of Britain’s marvellous mammals, and a rallying cry to save them. *** SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 'A cracking book, which shares fascinating stories from the new frontlines of nature conservation... readable and entertaining. The passion and humour of the authors comes through on every page.' Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts 'Elegiac, informative and funny; some truly magical encounters in the wild.' Peter Fiennes, author of Oak and Ash and Thorn 'Spring has barely ticked over into summer, but I’ve already found the book that I’ll be recommending for the rest of the year.' Countryfile 'Packed full of useful information and acutely up to date… As she's one of the ablest mammalogists of our age, it's well worth listening to Fiona Mathews. I would heartily recommend this book to all.' Derek Gow, author of Bringing Back the Beaver

Hiking Waterfalls in Washington includes detailed hike descriptions, maps, and color photos for the area’s most scenic waterfall hikes. Hike descriptions also include history, trivia, and GPS coordinates. This book takes you through state and national parks, forests, monuments, and wilderness areas, and from city parks to the most secluded corners of the area to view the most spectacular waterfalls.

The Lives Around Us is a series of short meditations for individuals or groups. It can serve as a Lent book or at any time of the year. Its purpose is to tap into the present public interest in nature connection and encourage this to be formed in concert with Bible reading and regular (daily or weekly) prayer. Each chapter begins with descriptive reflection on a specific creature (animal, plant, fungus, mineral) followed by one or two thoughts about what we can do for them practically. There is a Bible reading and then a section that encourages prayer and sometimes a prayerful activity.

The “compelling . . . detailed and thoughtful account” of the rise and fall of the Cosmos, New York’s first superstar soccer team (Kirkus Reviews). In the summer of 1977, soccer was poised to finally conquer America and the New York Cosmos were the premier sports team of the city. They boasted the greatest roster of the world’s best players—notably, Brazil’s international sensation Pelé—ever assembled for any sport. For a time, they were the darlings of the press. Their first game was televised in twenty-two different countries. They were favorites at Studio 54. They partied behind the velvet ropes with Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger. Less a growing sports phenom than a pop-culture happening, the hottest ticket in town drew the likes of Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Henry Kissinger, and Robert Redford. Warner Brothers chairman and Cosmos owner Steve Ross may not have known a goalkeeper from a zookeeper, but in a city awash in celebrity and decadence, Ross knew spectacle. He also knew how to make a dollar, and stars. But as the Cosmos players soon became enmeshed in a world of millionaires, gangsters, groupies, glamour, power struggles, alcoholic excess, drugs, disco and very public fistfights, they were set for a heartbreaking and inevitable fall. “Colorful and keen . . . [and] detail-rich, this unlikely drama of a quintessentially American flirtation” (Publishers Weekly), “is a gripping evocation of a glorious but brief moment when the beautiful game had the US entranced” (Time Out London).