Nature Books

In the face of climate change and widespread extinction, there has never been a more important time to study plant science, says Chris Thorogood – author of Pathless Forest: The Quest to Save the World's Largest Flowers. Here he recommends five of his favourite books on botany, including historical accounts of plant exploration and a beautiful photobook profiling the world's most impressive botanical gardens.

Author and environmentalist Mark Boyle lived for three years without money; now he lives entirely off-grid and eschews all forms of modern technology, in search of a wilder way of living—and of being more in tune with the natural world. Here he discusses his literary inspirations: the best books on wilderness.

Is there room for both humans and wild nature to flourish on an increasingly crowded planet? The author Isabella Tree argues that 'wilding' can be benefit both, and chooses five books to support her case.

Amy Liptrot, whose bestselling memoir The Outrun won the 2016 Wainwright Prize for nature writing, talks to Five Books about her favourite writing about landscape—and how her immersion in island life helped her recover from alcoholism.

Charles Foster—the barrister, ethicist and bestselling author of Being a Beast—selects five brilliant nature books that reflect a new boom in nature writing in 2020, many of which ask us to examine more closely the interconnectedness of all things.

The predators that stalked our ancestors have been marginalised to the brink of extinction, but these animals still fill us with awe, says Nick Pyenson. They play a vital role in life on Earth, and we need to understand them if we are to survive.

Again and again we return to the question: how should we live? To Henry David Thoreau, the 19th-century author, philosopher and naturalist, the answer was simplicity itself. Here his biographer Laura Dassow Walls selects five key texts that explore the Thoreauvian way of thinking.

How has the Earth changed over time and what role has fire played in those changes? A leading geologist, Andrew Scott, identifies key stages and books to help understand them

Volcanoes not only play a vital role in the Earth's ecosystem but have fascinated us down the ages. Oxford University volcanologist David Pyle recommends some of his favourite books about volcanoes.

You don't have to be a professional arachnologist to study and get excited about spiders—nor do you need to travel away from home. The author of Britain's Spiders, Lawrence Bee, recommends all the books you need to become an amateur arachnologist.