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The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st-century Bestiary
Caspar Henderson
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Description for The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st-century Bestiary
Paperback. An entrancing guide to the world's most far-fetched creatures - a unique blend of cutting-edge science and philosophical meditation on what we humans can learn from the extraordinary animals around us Illustrator(s): Moghaddas, Golbanou. Num Pages: 448 pages, integrated. BIC Classification: WNC. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 130 x 198 x 32. Weight in Grams: 416.
From Axolotl to Zebrafish, discover a host of barely imagined beings: real creatures that are often more astonishing than anything dreamt in the pages of a medieval bestiary. Ranging from the depths of the ocean to the most arid corners of the earth, Caspar Henderson captures the beauty and bizarreness of the many living forms we thought we knew and some we could never have contemplated, inviting us to better imagine the precarious world we inhabit. A witty, vivid blend of pioneering natural history and spiritual primer, infectiously celebratory about life's sheer ingenuity and variety, The Book of ... Read moreBarely Imagined Beings is a mind-expanding, wonder-inducing read. Show Less
Product Details
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
About Caspar Henderson
CASPAR HENDERSON has been a journalist and editor with various publications and broadcasters, including BBC Radio 4, the Financial Times, the Independent, Nature, New Scientist and openDemocracy (where he was senior editor for three years). He is a past recipient of an IUCN-Reuters award for best environmental reporting in Western Europe. He won the Roger Deakin Award of the Society ... Read moreof Authors and the Jerwood Award of the Royal Society of Literature for this book as a work in progress. Show Less
Reviews for The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st-century Bestiary
Wondrous, capacious and strange
Simon Critchley Utterly extraordinary book: glorious and genre-bending; a spell-book of species that entranced me from its first page... A celebration of nature's astonishing variety - and a warning as to what we are so rapidly losing
Robert Macfarlane Wonderful, beautiful and engrossing... a delight
Robin Ince A celebration, a warning, and unquestionably ... Read moreone of the best books of the year
Bella Bathurst
Scotsman
Here is the key to nature's secret cupboard, featuring the animals that have eluded our gaze. Seek no further for the dream gift
Eileen Battersby, Books of the Year
Irish Times
Challenges our perception of the natural world, and reminds us of the huge effect we have on the environment... Enlightening and beautiful
Carl Wilkinson
Financial Times
A spellbinding book... [Henderson] fuses zoology, literature, mythology, history, palaeontology, anecdote and art through 27 brilliantly executed essays... Extraordinary
Gavin Francis
Guardian
Full of the unusual and the astonishing... Henderson writes beautifully, with apt analogies and brilliantly explanatory metaphors... [A] delight
The Scotsman
Mixing anatomical details, evolutionary speculation, and social commentary, Caspar Henderson takes us on an eye-opening tour of real animals that no sane human could ever have invented
Frans de Waal, author
The Age of Empathy
A sublime rumination on existence. In twenty-seven exquisitely crafted cameos, Henderson reveals the hidden wonders of life in all its exuberant strangeness, at the same time illuminating our own place in the world. Simply stunning
Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York A wonderful book! With the precision of a scientist, the elegance of an artist and the minatory power of an Old Testament prophet, Caspar Henderson exhorts us to pay attention to the other species on our endangered planet and learn from them before it is too late
Richard Holloway Henderson is a zoological Borges, taking us on a fascinating and exhilarating journey through the labyrinth of natural history... a brilliant and original meditation on what the animal world can teach us about who we are and who we want to be, with plenty of witty asides along the way... Unforgettable
Roman Krznaric, author of The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live and faculty member of The School of Life As fabulous as anything Borges ever conceived... What stops this from becoming a conventional zoological doomfest is the bounce of his writing and the breadth of his knowledge
Bella Bathurst
Sunday Telegraph
A series of Montaignesque essays that celebrate the diversity of life
Gavin Frances, Books of the Year
Scotsman
Eloquent as well as encyclopaedic, witty and warm, Caspar Henderson is the perfect companion for this tour of the strange and beautiful
Louise Fabiani
TLS
Thick with witty reflections on natural history and a huge number of luxurious illustrations... An impressively generous volume, which should come as no surprise for a publication from one of our favourites, Granta
It’s Nice That blog
It takes a writer of Henderson's talent to fascinate us with tales of sponges and protozoa... This engrossing, fact-filled yet poetic book is an excellent attempt to understand the nature of the gulf between us and the species with which we share this planet... Magnificent
Philip Hoare
Literary Review
[A] marvellously inventive, witty and ethically serious compendium-grimoire-spell book-dream vision, whose many virtues I cannot exhaust
Robert Macfarlane
EarthLines
Exhilarating... one of 2012's most remarkable books on the natural world
Roy Wilkinson
Caught by the River
A triumph ... Imaginative and elegantly conceived... Rewarding in all measures, from an idle browse to an immersive page turn, this is zoological writing at its very best
BBC Wildlife Magazine
Thoughtful, entertaining and often challenging
BBC Focus
A fine and accessible work of scholarship... Stunning
Anthony Davies
Ham & High
Gorgeous
Nic Bottomley
Bath Life
He can demonstrate not only the staggering fecundity of evolution but the fragility of the eco-system that supports such diversity... [His] extended paean to nature's creativity leaves us with a sense of unfinished business rather than inevitable doom
James Attlee
Independent
A beautiful book, with incredible illustrations
Oxfam blog
In House
Exuberantly learned... [Henderson] finds joy in animals themselves
James McConnachie
Sunday Times
Magnificent
Must Reads
Sunday Times
A rich mixture of science, mythology and literature, whose plethora of entertaining digressions left me overwhelmed and impressed
Richard Fortey Each entry marries history and philosophy with science, and fantastical illustrations, photographs and diagrams enrich the book's pages... Recommended
Scientific American
Once you start reading, it becomes hard to stop... Expect to be glued to [this book]... A superb celebration of biodiversity... Unforgettable
Nicola Baird
Friends of the Earth
Engaging, descriptive and often drily humorous... [This] modern bestiary is a book to read and treasure
Cosmos Magazine
Erudite and beautifully and thoughtfully written... There are many pleasures to take from this book... I absolutely loved it
Vulpes Libris blog
Though his tone is often jaunty and he ends with unlikely optimism, Henderson doesn't elide dark truths... Wisely, [he] combines approaches... [This book] tours nature's brilliance in light of honest science
James Guida
New Yorker
British nature writing is wittily energized by this sense of menace and hazard... by Caspar Henderson
Robert Macfarlane
Nature
Beautiful
Alan Boyle
NBC News
A beautiful work that celebrates Earth's extraordinary species
Stuart Pimm
Nature
Sophisticated... [with a] deep respect for evolutionary science..... [This] is a book about what it means to be human
Book Forum
Magical ... both aesthetically pleasing and scientifically intriguing, [it] would make an inspiring addition to any natural history collection
Evolve
A lovely cultural history of animals we know and animals we may not... Impressive
Lesley McDowell
Sunday Herald
A collection as fabulous in sum as any of its parts
Sunday Telegraph
Exuberantly learned
James McConnachie
Sunday Times
This is not just a beautiful book - it is an important one
five star review
Independent on Sunday
Extraordinary
Guardian
Compulsively readable, both informative and thought-provoking
Paris Review
Henderson looks at these animals with a sensibility that makes you see them anew
William Leith
Evening Standard
It is a glorious celebration of our extraordinary world, presented in a gorgeous volume and exuding wit and charm
Nature
An utterly charming fusion of science and navel-gazing... there aren't words to describe how beautiful this volume is, or the feelings it evokes. Stunning
Booksmith
Henderson offers readers a fascinating, beautifully produced modern-day menagerie
Bioteaching
Extraordinary and exotic book... a hugely important work
Ecohustler
[A] beautifully conjured world of barely imagined beings
Best Science Books
New Scientist
Lovely... Henderson presents us with something that stays in the memory long after the book is put back on the shelf, a whole that is greater than its parts
Alok Jha
Guardian
Prismatic
Australian
A glorious A-Z of natural oddities
Independent
This extraordinary and exotic book is a hugely important
Positive News
A fascinating mix of science and philosophy
Biojournalism
A powerful combination of wit, cutting-edge natural history, and philosophical meditation... Infectious and inspiring
Science Book a Day blog
[Henderson] uses each creature as a springboard into ideas as beautifully wild as the animals themselves... Remarkable, funny and wise
Resurgence Magazine
The most beautiful publication I have read in many years. Caspar is a writer of extreme charm, wit and intelligence... His writing is funny and wise
Hugh Warwick
Resurgence & Ecologist
This compendium of weird and wonderful creatures details plenty of bizarre, rare and extraordinary species that it's hard to believe exist in real life
Buzzfeed
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