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Elegy For a River
- Author
- Tom Moorhouse
- Narrator
- Tom Moorhouse
- Publisher
- Transworld
- Publish Date
- 25 March 2021
- Run Time
- 5 hours 11 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Conservation of wildlife and habitats, The countryside, country life: general interest, Wildlife: mammals: general interest
- Rating
- 5.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Water voles are small, brownish, bewhiskered and charming. Made famous by 'Ratty' in The Wind in the Willows, once they were a ubiquitous part of our waterways. They were a totem of our rivers. Now, however, they are nearly gone. This is their story, and the story of a conservationist with a wild hope: that he could bring them back.
Tom Moorhouse spent eleven years beside rivers, fens, canals, lakes and streams, researching British wildlife. Quite a lot of it tried to bite him. He studied four main species - two native and endangered, two invasive and endangering - beginning with water voles. He wanted to solve their conservation problems. He wanted to put things right.
This book is about whether it worked, and what he learnt - and about what those lessons mean, not just for water voles but for all the world's wildlife. It is a book for anyone who has watched ripples spread on lazy waters, and wondered what moves beneath. Or who has waited in quiet hope for a rustle in the reeds, the munch of a stem, or the patter of unseen paws.
© Tom Moorhouse 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Critics Review
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Oh my ears and whiskers. I loved this... Self-deprecating humour combines with a paean to the wonders of creation, hard facts and hope for an imperilled species.
Saga
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It flows from the heart, eddies with fascinating information, and runs cool and clear with concern about the state of our rivers. They now have their champion.
John Lewis-Stempel
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Book of the Week
Country Life
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What a book. It has everything I love. It is lively, it is tender, it is fascinating, it starts small and very particular, and then - my God - by the end you are doing the Hallelujah chorus. It feels such an important book and I hope that everyone reads it. It seems to me to deliver on the greatest thing a book can achieve - when, through reading, you feel changed and inspired to act.
Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
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Tom Moorhouse has written a book about ecological loss that is also somehow laugh-out-loud funny - passionate, warm and full of fascinating insights into the eccentric world of the field naturalist.'
Isabella Tree, author of WILDING
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Beautiful and important. Tom's book is extraordinary in its gentle curiosity and sympathy for his subjects. In Elegy for a River he takes us back to our childhoods. He then holds our confused moral compass up to a microscope to make us realise that only a return to that place can save us. I love this book.
Sir Tim Smit KBE, Executive Vice-Chairman and Co-founder of the Eden Project
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BOOK OF THE WEEK: 'particularly enjoyable'
Daily Mail
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Small is beautiful. That goes for conservation, too. Tom Moorhouse doesn't chase tigers and elephants; he gets bitten by water voles. He doesn't big up the case for saving the Amazon; he pleads for the tiny streams and forgotten pools where his voles swim and scamper. Elegy for a River is an unabashed love story about a soggy, decade-long adventure into the heart of the watery English countryside, in search of his wild, wonderful and sharp-toothed obsession. A joy.
Fred Pearce, author of WHEN THE RIVERS RUN DRY
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What an enjoyable book! It is such a rare pleasure to read environmental science and smile at the same time. Tom Moorhouse achieves something that few nature writers manage, he gets the whole message across by being good company.
Tristan Gooley, The Natural Navigator
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A fascinating story of ecology and fieldwork that is both funny and furious. Moorhouse has written an elegy not just for the rivers he loves, but also for life on earth.
Hugh Warwick, author of A Prickly Affair: The Charm of the Hedgehog
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
- No written reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Tom Moorhouse
- Narrator
- Tom Moorhouse
- Duration
- 5 hours 11 minutes
- Release Date
- 25 March 2021
- ISBN
- 9781473592797
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Transworld
- Genre
- Conservation of wildlife and habitats, The countryside, country life: general interest, Wildlife: mammals: general interest
- Rating
- 5.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 5.0(1 review)
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin. Water voles are small, brownish, bewhiskered and charming. Made famous by 'Ratty' in The Wind in the Willows, once they were a ubiquitous part of our waterways. They were a totem of our rivers. Now, however, they are nearly gone. This is their story, and the story of a conservationist with a wild hope: that he could bring them back.Tom Moorhouse spent eleven years beside rivers, fens, canals, lakes and streams, researching British wildlife. Quite a lot of it tried to bite him. He studied four main species - two native and endangered, two invasive and endangering - beginning with water voles. He wanted to solve their conservation problems. He wanted to put things right.This book is about whether it worked, and what he learnt - and about what those lessons mean, not just for water voles but for all the world's wildlife. It is a book for anyone who has watched ripples spread on lazy waters, and wondered what moves beneath. Or who has waited in quiet hope for a rustle in the reeds, the munch of a stem, or the patter of unseen paws.© Tom Moorhouse 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
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