From the rainforests of Costa Rica to the Balkans and Scotland, Karen Lloyd explores the hidden life of habitats and species including sloths, the rockpool shrimp and the world s only truly wild horse. She studies the biodiversity of urban wildflower meadows and the contested spaces of landscape recovery, including in the Lake District where she lives, assessing our human impact on the lives of creatures whose survival is deeply intertwined with our own. In an era marked by escalating environmental crisis, this luminous collection challenges us to understand that preserving our planet demands recognising the intrinsic rights of our fellow species; that social and environmental justice are inseverable. Lloyd s essays blend lyrical observation with urgency and philosophical depth, arguing for new directions for conservation. This collection is a rallying call a celebration of renewal and resilience for all who care about Earth s future.

Karen Lloyd is an award-winning writer of non-fiction and poetry based in Kendal, Cumbria. Her 2022 book, Abundance, was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. Both her debut, The Gathering Tide, which explores the edgelands of Morecambe Bay, and her second book, The Blackbird Diaries, won Lakeland Book Awards and were selected as books of the year, in the Observer and the Birdwatcher s Handbook. She has contributed to the Guardian Country Diary, Royal Geographical Society magazine, BBC Wildlife and Countryfile, and she edited and produced Curlew Calling Anthology to raise awareness of curlew restoration. Karen gained her PhD from Lancaster University, where she taught on the Creative Writing MA and was writer in residence at the university s Future Places Centre.