Isabella Tree's favourite nature writing

Known as the father of ‘rewilding’ Leopold was ‘full of trigger-itch’ as a young man, hunting bears, wolves and mountain lions in New Mexico. He came to his senses after watching the dying moments of a she-wolf. These beautiful essays, based on the restoration of an exhausted 80-acre farm in the sand country of central Wisconsin, are full of insights rooted in intelligent humility that inform naturalists to this day.

For the sheer joy of it Beston spent a year in a tiny house he built on the wild, remote beach of Cape Cod. His entrancing descriptions of the surf swarming with sand-eels, a summer night lit up by phosphorescence and islands of floating sea-birds, are a reminder of how rich our coasts and oceans were, not so long ago.

Adam’s tribute to ten species of sea birds dives and soars between poetry and science, history and myth, the present crisis and future hope. Breathtaking to read, it leaves you feeling exhilarated and intimately connected with these wondrous ocean voyagers.

This impassioned plea to preserve the biodiversity of our planet, from one of the world’s greatest naturalists (and double Pulitzer prize-winner), involves dedicating half the earth’s surface to nature. If we fail to do this, if we continue down our path causing the mass extinction of species, he warns, we will enter a new earthly epoch - the Eremocine, the Age of Loneliness. Of all people, Wilson has witnessed much that should cause him to despair, but ultimately this extraordinary, cosmic perspective of human impact is an expression of hope, a blueprint for saving the planet and all the wondrous species – from microbe to rhino - that share it with us.