Anna Levin

In a pet dog you have your own personal trainer, your most loyal companion, your friendliest welcome, your uncritical friend. Yes, there are the muddy paws, the walks in the rain, the wet fur and the chewed footwear ... but let's look at the big picture! In a tribute to Man's Best Friend, Anna Levin's delightful short poem is a homage to our pet dogs, each line illustrated with a moving photograph of someone's mutt: funny, heart-wrenching, loving, exasperating and paying back their owners a hundred times over.

My Friends Who Don't Have Dogs

Laurie Campbell

This book is a celebration of the return of the otter to our rivers and freshwater wetlands after a drastic decline in the last century. For more than two decades, award-winning photographer Laurie Campbell has documented these lithe, elusive predators on the River Tweed and its tributaries near his Berwickshire home. The resulting photographs create an intimate portrait of their lives through the changing seasons, including their riverside habitat and the other wildlife that shares it. Writer Anna Levin sets this work in the context of Laurie's own life's story as she accompanies him to the riverbank. Her notebooks offer a vivid glimpse of the photographer at work and of the otters that enchant them both. This beautiful book is lavishly illustrated throughout, divided into seasonal chapters and charts Laurie's personal quest to capture these endearing creatures in their natural habitat. It also offers an insight into Laurie's philosophy - to look closer to home, rather than further away to connect with our own natural environment.

Return to the River

Otters

Light is fundamental - it tells us when to sleep, wake, eat; it tells plants which way to grow, birds where to fly and coral when to spawn. But light is changing, dramatically, with artificial light pollution, and we don't truly understand the consequences. Nature writer Anna Levin explores the impact on the planet and on human health.

We Need to Talk about Light

Incandescent

Light is changing, dramatically. Our world is getting brighter – you can see it from space. But is brighter always better?Artificial light is voracious and spreading. Vanquishing precious darkness across the planet, when we are supposed to be using less energy. The quality of light has altered as well. Technology and legislation have crushed warm incandescent lighting in favour of harsher, often glaring alternatives. Light is fundamental – it really matters. It interacts with life in profound yet subtle ways: it tells plants which way to grow, birds where to fly and coral when to spawn. It tells each and every one of us when to sleep, wake, eat. We mess with the eternal rhythm of dawn-day-dusk-night at our peril. But mess with it we have, and we still don’t truly understand the consequences. InIncandescent, journalist Anna Levin reveals her own fraught relationship with changes in lighting, and she explores its real impact on nature, our built environment, health and psychological well-being. We need to talk about light, urgently. And ask the critical question: just how bright is our future?

Anna Levin

Books

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