Nature’s Ghosts

The World We Lost and How to Bring it Back

Sophie Yeo

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English

HarperNorth
24 April 2025

Landscape archaeology; Environmental archaeology; Ecological science, the Biosphere; Biodiversity; Conservation of wildlife & habitats

Shortlisted for the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Writing on ConservationShortlisted for the 2024 Richard Jefferies AwardA Times Science Book of the Year‘Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.’ Chris Packham

For thousands of years, humans have been the architects of the natural world. Our activities have permanently altered the environment – for good and for bad.

In Nature’s Ghosts, award-winning journalist Sophie Yeo examines how the planet would have looked before humans scrubbed away its diversity: from landscapes carved out by megafauna to the primeval forests that emerged following the last Ice Age, and from the eagle-haunted skies of the Dark Ages to the flower-decked farms of more recent centuries.

Uncovering the stories of the people who have helped to shape the landscape, she seeks out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found. And she explores the timeworn knowledge that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth.

Along the way, Sophie encounters the environmental detectives – archaeological, cultural and ecological – reconstructing, in stunning detail, the landscapes we have lost.

Today, the natural world is more vulnerable than ever; the footprints of humanity heavier than they have ever been. But, as this urgent book argues, from the ghosts of the past, we may learn how to build a more wild and ancient future.

By: Sophie Yeo
Imprint: HarperNorth
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 220g
ISBN: 9780008474157
ISBN 10: 000847415X
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 24 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sophie Yeo is a writer and journalist based in Durham, England. She has written about nature and climate change for publications including the Washington Post, the Guardian and BBC Future. She is also the founder and editor of Inkcap Journal, a publication focusing on conservation in Britain, which won the Press Gazette Newsletter of the Year award in 2022. Her first book, Nature's Ghosts, was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Conservation in 2024.

Reviews for Nature’s Ghosts: The World We Lost and How to Bring it Back

‘Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.’ Chris Packham 'A wondrous book and a ticket for environmental time travel.' Tristan Gooley ‘Offers insights that could help shape a better informed and more constructive debate … Concludes with determination and hope.’ The Spectator 'Wonderful … Invites us to overcome our shortsightedness by peering into the distant past and using it to inform our future.' The Times 'Nature’s Ghosts underscores how people have more choices than they realize when it comes to crafting a better future.' Nature 'Elegantly written and poetic.' Science 'Urgent and utterly compelling.' Lewis Dartnell ‘Essential, intelligent reading. Sophie is one of the brightest, best-informed and most balanced contributors to the big debates.’ Patrick Barkham 'Carefully and elegantly traces the complex histories of humanity's changing relations with land and wildness. … Joyful.' Rebecca Wragg Sykes 'Beautiful and necessary: Yeo will make you see the land with new eyes.' Ben Rawlence 'Fascinating, deeply researched and breathtaking in its scope.' Guy Shrubsole 'A thrilling work of investigative writing.' Lee Schofield 'Important and inspiring.' Helen Rebanks 'Beautifully told.' Henry Mance ‘Vivid and urgent. A powerful new voice.’ Mary-Ann Ochota ‘Captivating. Enriched by luminous ideas and forward-thinking passion.’ Tiffany Francis-Baker 'A tour de force.' Benedict Macdonald 'As textured as the lost landscapes through which Yeo transports us.' Jon Dunn 'Fascinating … Thrilling.' Patrick Galbraith ‘A book of overwhelming, hopeful humanity.’ Harriet Rix 'Poignant.' Geographical Magazine