Wild Isles

This beautifully illustrated overview of the wildlife of the British Isles showcases the diversity of our plant and animal life.

Wild Isles is a celebration of the wildlife found on a relatively modest collection of islands positioned at a latitude so northerly to be unattractive to many animals and plants. Despite these unpromising foundations, the islands of Britain and Ireland, together with more than 6,000 lesser islets that make up our archipelago, contain some of the most diverse, beautiful and wildlife-rich landscapes and seas on our planet.
This book will explore the fascinating relationships within and between species who make their home on our beautiful isles.

Each chapter focuses on a particular kind of wild space. Britain and Ireland are dominated by a wide variety of grasslands from lowland water meadows to upland moors, and we will see how these human-shaped, semi-natural landscapes thrum with insect, bird and mammal life. Life requires water to flourish, and streams and rivers carry freshwater through our landscape, creating unique ecosystems and interrelations within and beside these waters, which are revealed in a third section. While Britain and Ireland's woodlands are comparatively thin on the ground compared with most of continental Europe, we will see some of the forests and trees that remain are unusually ancient and, great repositories of life. Finally, of course, we are surrounded by sea, and our position on the continental shelf before it plunges into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean gives rise to an often overlooked plenty of marine life. A glorious richness divided into five breathtaking sections.

Patrick Barkham is an award-winning author and the Guardian's Natural History Writer. His books include The Butterfly Isles, Coastlines, Badgerlands, Islander and Wild Child. He is President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and lives in Norfolk with his family.

Alastair Fothergill is the award-winning producer and director of numerous nature documentaries, including Frozen Planet, Planet Earth and The Blue Planet. He is a co-founder of Silverback Films and was previously the Head of the BBC Natural History Unit. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and was awarded their gold medal in 2012. He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bristol, Durham, York St John and Hull. In 2017 Alastair was the BBC Grierson Trustees' Award winner and he was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2019 for his services to film.