From Axolotl to Zebrafish, discover a host of barely imagined beings: real creatures that are often more astonishing than anything dreamt in the pages of a medieval bestiary. Ranging from the depths of the ocean to the most arid corners of the earth, Caspar Henderson captures the beauty and bizarreness of the many living forms we thought we knew and some we could never have contemplated, inviting us to better imagine the precarious world we inhabit.
A witty, vivid blend of pioneering natural history and spiritual primer, infectiously celebratory about life's sheer ingenuity and variety, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is a mind-expanding, wonder-inducing read.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 9781847082442
Number of pages: 448
Weight: 430 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 31 mm
Wondrous, capacious and strange - Simon Critchley
Utterly extraordinary book: glorious and genre-bending; a spell-book of species that entranced me from its first page... A celebration of nature's astonishing variety - and a warning as to what we are so rapidly losing - Robert Macfarlane
Wonderful, beautiful and engrossing... a delight - Robin Ince
A celebration, a warning, and unquestionably one of the best books of the year - Bella Bathurst, Scotsman
Here is the key to nature's secret cupboard, featuring the animals that have eluded our gaze. Seek no further for the dream gift - Eileen Battersby, Books of the Year, Irish Times
Challenges our perception of the natural world, and reminds us of the huge effect we have on the environment... Enlightening and beautiful - Carl Wilkinson, Financial Times
A spellbinding book... [Henderson] fuses zoology, literature, mythology, history, palaeontology, anecdote and art through 27 brilliantly executed essays... Extraordinary - Gavin Francis, Guardian
Full of the unusual and the astonishing... Henderson writes beautifully, with apt analogies and brilliantly explanatory metaphors... [A] delight - The Scotsman
Mixing anatomical details, evolutionary speculation, and social commentary, Caspar Henderson takes us on an eye-opening tour of real animals that no sane human could ever have invented - Frans de Waal, author, The Age of Empathy
A sublime rumination on existence. In twenty-seven exquisitely crafted cameos, Henderson reveals the hidden wonders of life in all its exuberant strangeness, at the same time illuminating our own place in the world. Simply stunning - Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York
A wonderful book! With the precision of a scientist, the elegance of an artist and the minatory power of an Old Testament prophet, Caspar Henderson exhorts us to pay attention to the other species on our endangered planet and learn from them before it is too late - Richard Holloway
Henderson is a zoological Borges, taking us on a fascinating and exhilarating journey through the labyrinth of natural history... a brilliant and original meditation on what the animal world can teach us about who we are and who we want to be, with plenty of witty asides along the way... Unforgettable - Roman Krznaric, author of The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live and faculty member of The School of Life
As fabulous as anything Borges ever conceived... What stops this from becoming a conventional zoological doomfest is the bounce of his writing and the breadth of his knowledge - Bella Bathurst, Sunday Telegraph
A series of Montaignesque essays that celebrate the diversity of life - Gavin Frances, Books of the Year, Scotsman
Eloquent as well as encyclopaedic, witty and warm, Caspar Henderson is the perfect companion for this tour of the strange and beautiful - Louise Fabiani, TLS
Thick with witty reflections on natural history and a huge number of luxurious illustrations... An impressively generous volume, which should come as no surprise for a publication from one of our favourites, Granta - It’s Nice That blog
It takes a writer of Henderson's talent to fascinate us with tales of sponges and protozoa... This engrossing, fact-filled yet poetic book is an excellent attempt to understand the nature of the gulf between us and the species with which we share this planet... Magnificent - Philip Hoare, Literary Review
[A] marvellously inventive, witty and ethically serious compendium-grimoire-spell book-dream vision, whose many virtues I cannot exhaust - Robert Macfarlane, EarthLines
Exhilarating... one of 2012's most remarkable books on the natural world - Roy Wilkinson, Caught by the River
A triumph ... Imaginative and elegantly conceived... Rewarding in all measures, from an idle browse to an immersive page turn, this is zoological writing at its very best - BBC Wildlife Magazine
Thoughtful, entertaining and often challenging - BBC Focus
A fine and accessible work of scholarship... Stunning - Anthony Davies, Ham & High
Gorgeous - Nic Bottomley, Bath Life
He can demonstrate not only the staggering fecundity of evolution but the fragility of the eco-system that supports such diversity... [His] extended paean to nature's creativity leaves us with a sense of unfinished business rather than inevitable doom - James Attlee, Independent
A beautiful book, with incredible illustrations - Oxfam blog, In House
Exuberantly learned... [Henderson] finds joy in animals themselves - James McConnachie, Sunday Times
Magnificent - Must Reads, Sunday Times
A rich mixture of science, mythology and literature, whose plethora of entertaining digressions left me overwhelmed and impressed - Richard Fortey
Each entry marries history and philosophy with science, and fantastical illustrations, photographs and diagrams enrich the book's pages... Recommended - Scientific American
Once you start reading, it becomes hard to stop... Expect to be glued to [this book]... A superb celebration of biodiversity... Unforgettable - Nicola Baird, Friends of the Earth
Engaging, descriptive and often drily humorous... [This] modern bestiary is a book to read and treasure - Cosmos Magazine
Erudite and beautifully and thoughtfully written... There are many pleasures to take from this book... I absolutely loved it - Vulpes Libris blog
Though his tone is often jaunty and he ends with unlikely optimism, Henderson doesn't elide dark truths... Wisely, [he] combines approaches... [This book] tours nature's brilliance in light of honest science - James Guida, New Yorker
British nature writing is wittily energized by this sense of menace and hazard... by Caspar Henderson - Robert Macfarlane, Nature
Beautiful - Alan Boyle, NBC News
A beautiful work that celebrates Earth's extraordinary species - Stuart Pimm, Nature
Sophisticated... [with a] deep respect for evolutionary science..... [This] is a book about what it means to be human - Book Forum
Magical ... both aesthetically pleasing and scientifically intriguing, [it] would make an inspiring addition to any natural history collection - Evolve
A lovely cultural history of animals we know and animals we may not... Impressive - Lesley McDowell, Sunday Herald
A collection as fabulous in sum as any of its parts - Sunday Telegraph
Exuberantly learned - James McConnachie, Sunday Times
This is not just a beautiful book - it is an important one - five star review, Independent on Sunday
Extraordinary - Guardian
Compulsively readable, both informative and thought-provoking - Paris Review
Henderson looks at these animals with a sensibility that makes you see them anew - William Leith, Evening Standard
It is a glorious celebration of our extraordinary world, presented in a gorgeous volume and exuding wit and charm - Nature
An utterly charming fusion of science and navel-gazing... there aren't words to describe how beautiful this volume is, or the feelings it evokes. Stunning - Booksmith
Henderson offers readers a fascinating, beautifully produced modern-day menagerie - Bioteaching
Extraordinary and exotic book... a hugely important work - Ecohustler
[A] beautifully conjured world of barely imagined beings - Best Science Books, New Scientist
Lovely... Henderson presents us with something that stays in the memory long after the book is put back on the shelf, a whole that is greater than its parts - Alok Jha, Guardian
Prismatic - Australian
A glorious A-Z of natural oddities - Independent
This extraordinary and exotic book is a hugely important - Positive News
A fascinating mix of science and philosophy - Biojournalism
A powerful combination of wit, cutting-edge natural history, and philosophical meditation... Infectious and inspiring - Science Book a Day blog
[Henderson] uses each creature as a springboard into ideas as beautifully wild as the animals themselves... Remarkable, funny and wise - Resurgence Magazine
The most beautiful publication I have read in many years. Caspar is a writer of extreme charm, wit and intelligence... His writing is funny and wise - Hugh Warwick, Resurgence & Ecologist
This compendium of weird and wonderful creatures details plenty of bizarre, rare and extraordinary species that it's hard to believe exist in real life - Buzzfeed
A bestiary of amazing creatures (including us beastly humans), beautifully illustrated and with side notes that'll take you down whole other unexpected avenues of interest. Endlessly fascinating, on each page... More
This is one of the most beautiful natural history titles I have ever come across. I considered buying it for the delicate illustrations and the way that my brain was made to feel happy just by soaking in it's... More
Beautifully produced and chock-full of interesting facts and asides, this is perfect to dip in and enjoy the wonders of weirdnesses of nature.
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