Nature’s Ghosts: The world we lost and how to bring it back – Sophie Yeo

Nature’s Ghosts 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, Sophie Yeo seeks out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found.  She explores the timeworn knowledge – archaeological, cultural and ecological – that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth.  Today, the natural world is more vulnerable than ever; the footprints of humanity heavier than they have ever been.  But, from the ghosts of the past, we may learn how to build a more wild and ancient future and avoid ecological catastrophe.

Sophie Yeo is a writer, and 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.

‘Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.’ Chris Packham