2025 Round-Up of Good Reads about Nature: Botany, Trees, Fungi, Ecology and Natural History

Good Reads of 2025

A round up of notable  ‘Good Reads’ that have come out in the last year and are ideal for gifts – ranging across botany, palaeontology, natural history, trees, fungi, gardening and conservation. 

Botany & Botanical Art

Just published, the much-anticipated BSBI handbook, Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland, would make a great present for a dedicated botanist, but check they haven’t pre-ordered it already!

Two botanical books in the British Wildlife Collection came out in the last 12 months. Rare Plants by Peter Marren and Urban Plants by Trevor Dines. Both are highly recommended and excellent reads.

The Herbal Year – by renowned botanical artist and author Christina Hart-Davies, is a beautifully illustrated, well-researched guide to folklore, history and herbal remedies.

Other possibilities for botanical art lovers include:

 Bedgebury Florilegium – A pocket-sized celebration of the Bedgebury National Pinetum’s centenary. It would make a charming stocking filler.

Devotees of Angela Harding’s artwork were treated this year to a four-part set of books on Nature through the seasons, entitled Spring Unfurled, Summer’s Hum, Falling into Autumn, and Winter’s Song. They are also purchased as a Seasonal Quartet Boxset Signed copies of the individual titles are also available – please enquire.

Palaeontology & Deep Time

We were impressed by The Princeton Guide to Mesozoic Plants by Nan Crystal Arens. A fascinating and superbly illustrated guide; it incorporates the latest evidence from palaeontological discoveries, creating spectacular profiles of extinct species to compare with living relatives. 

We were also entertained by What did Dinosaurs Think About? by Jean Le Loeuff. Scientifically rigorous but written in a mischievously playful style that keeps you constantly engaged. 

For a younger audience (8 years and above), we recommend the illustrated version of Otherlands by Thomas Halliday. The original, a multi-award-winning dive into deep time and Earth’s lost worlds, has been cleverly adapted and splendidly illustrated.

Those with a more developed interest in palaeontology should enjoy Michael Benton’s Dinosaurs; new visions of a lost world. Up-to-date science, supported by astonishing colour illustrations, that challenges  pre-conceptions about how dinosaurs looked and lived.

For those who enjoy fossil hunting, or who are keen to give it a go, Fossils on the Seashore: Beachcombing and Palaeontology by Stephen K. Donovan, is a practical and accessible guide.

Extinction, Conservation & Environmental History

Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction by Sadiah Qureshi is a thoughtful exploration of extinction, examining how the concept arose and how it became shaped by politics, colonialism and science.

A more immediate read is Lost Wonders by Tom Lathan which tells the story of ten species that have gone extinct this century. A well written and moving elegy.

The Golden Mole (Expanded Edition) by Katherine Rundell is a richly illustrated celebration of rare and vanishing species. An inspired bestiary that wowed readers when it first appeared in 2023.

On a more positive note, Nature’s Genius by David Farrier, explores the myriad ways in which life adapts to change and what we might learn from this. 

Pertinently, this is something that Reefs of Time by Lisa Gardner also addresses, showing how lessons from the past, gleaned by looking in the fossil record and reef remains, offer a way forward for coral reefs struggling to survive in an age of climate crises and mass extinction.

Cull of the Wild, now in a paperback edition is a book that takes head on the controversial topic of culling to protect threatened species and habitats. A well written and important book.

Peatlands by Alys Fowler is another award-winning book, notable not just for its clear-eyed appreciation of the intricacies of bog life, but for the warmth and passion she brings to her writing

Returning to botany, The Cuckoo calls the Year by Petr Stroh, scientific officer for the BSBI, also has an upbeat message, as he notes the resilience of nature revealed in his weekly wanderings around his locality.

Resilience is the keynote of the remarkable story told in The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad by Simon Parker, It concerns the botanists who remained at the Plant Institute during a siege in WWII that claimed the lives of three quarters of a million people. They were faced with the moral dilemma of feeding the starving people with the contents of what was the world’s first seed bank or protect the bank to avoid a future global famine. A compelling story of courage and self-sacrifice in the name of science and in the face of adversity.

Trees & Woodlands 

Heading the list is The Genius of Trees by Harriet Rix. Engaging science writing on how trees shape and are shaped by the environments around them. Brilliant.

As with many books in the WILDguides series, Trees of Britain and Ireland by Jon Stokes proved a popular new field guide. 

Compendium type books with contributions from various authors, can be dipped into at will and make good bedside books. There are several in this section:

In The Circle of the Ancient Trees by Valerie Trouet is a series of essays, by dendrochronologists from around the world. Each author explores various aspects of an iconic species of tree. 

Similarly, Twelve Trees by Daniel Lewis and the Heart of the Woods by Wyl Mennmuir both lend themselves to random browsing

Other good reads from this year, written in a straightforward narrative style, include:

Forgotten Forests: Twelve thousand years of British and Irish Woodlands by Jonathan Mulard. A vivid, evidence-based history of British and Irish woodlands.

Being an Oak: Life as a Tree, by Laurent Tillon and translated by Jessica Moore is an engaging story that details the complex interrelationships between a particular tree, that the author has known since childhood, and the ‘players’ it engages with. Informative and fun to read. The cast of characters includes Quercus the tree and various animate and inanimate players who are similarly Personified (and gendered of course as the original French would be). Some have found this approach too anthropomorphic, but others  have embraced it.

Our Oaken Bones by Merlin Hanbury-Tenison and Of Thorn & Briar by hedgelayer Paul Lamb were both shortlisted for the 2025 Wainwright prize for Nature Writing, the latter is a captivating read and was a runaway best seller.

Hedges are having a bit of a day. We had Words from the Hedge by another hedgelayer Richard Negus, and offering a different perspective, Christopher Hart’s inspirational book Hedgelands has been widely praised. 

There is also Hedges in the excellent British Wildlife Collection series, by ecologist Robert Walton. Published in 2024 it was perhaps an underappreciated work at the time.

Fungi

Close Encounters of the Fungal Kind: In Pursuit of Remarkable Mushrooms by Richard Fortey, well known scientist and public speaker.  Always worth listening to and reading, for his wide knowledge, keen insight and great communication skills.

A Brush with Fungi, by David Mitchell is a new art book cum field guide that’s taken years to complete. Great illustrations that offer something different, with several images of each species showing features that are sometimes missing from other illustrated guides. On special offer.

Quirky and visually striking, Fungi: Mushroom Art Like Nothing on Earth by Bill Wurzel should appeal to anyone.

A staff choice is the Wild Food UK Forager’s Cookbook. Great ideas for newbie foragers and more seasoned ones.

Gardening

Daffodils by Naomi Slade is her latest book in a series on iconic garden flowers. You can view them all here. Each book is well laid out and easy to follow. The main part of the book is a comprehensive list of varieties, which are accompanied by lovely illustrations and a good description of features and relevant gardening advice.

Richard Mabey’s The Accidental Gardener was the BBC wildlife book of the year in 2024 and is now in paperback. 

One Garden against the World by Kate Bradbury is a month-by-month memoir of building a wildlife-friendly garden. The book is a testimony to how an individual and a community can build a nature friendly garden. 

Following a similar path to building a garden but written in a different style is archaeologist Francis Pryor’s A Fenland garden. 

Wildlife & Natural History 

The New Scientist non-fiction book of the year in 2025, Stowaway by Joe Shute, has recently been published in paperback. An interesting cultural and social history of the rat and our relationship with them. 

Every Last Fish by Rose George Takes us inside the commercial fishing industry, legal and illegal, telling the stories of both the catch, the catchers and those who process the fish.  Eye opening reportage.

Insectopolis: A Natural History by Peter Kuper. With its immersive graphic-novel style approach, this wonderful book unsurprisingly featured in this year’s Wainwright shortlist for Illustrative Books. 

Endemic by James Harding-Morris. Somewhat in the manner of previous books, whose authors traversed the country to find orchids or rare plants, James goes in search of animals, plants and fungi found only in the UK. With no definitive list available he set about researching likely candidates to produce a list of several hundred. The book describes his efforts to find them and the people working to prevent their loss. Essential reading for anyone concerned with the natural state of the nation.

A mirror book and entertainingly written is An Unnatural History of Britain: a journey in search of our non-native species, by Kevin Parr. He scours Britain for these creatures exploring the stories and myths that have sprung up around them. 

The Highland Cow and the Horse of the Woods: How Highland cattle can help the capercaillie, by Roy Dennis. Doyen of conservationists, with a good track record of turning around lost causes, Roy reveals the plight of the now rare capercaillie and outlines how to stop it becoming extinct. He points out the deficiencies of the current approaches to managing the restoration of degraded habitats, advocating that the Highland cow would be pivotal in restoring a biodiverse woodland ecosystem. The life of the capercaillie and the status and history of Highland cattle are covered in detail.

Neil Ansell’s The Edge of Silence, describes how the author’s progressive loss of hearing inspired an odyssey to hear elusive birds he’d not encountered before, some being amongst the most threatened birds in the UK.  A poignant and lyrical work 

An Inconvenience of Penguins: Epic voyages in pursuit of the world’s most beloved bird by Jamie Lafferty, is an entertaining read, veering at times between the humorous and the squeamishly horrible. Likewise, The Penguin Book of Penguins by Lisa and Peter Fretwell is also highly readable Both have gathered plaudits as celebratory books about this iconic bird, perhaps telling us rather more about our relationship with penguins than about the birds themselves!

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton – the Wainwright winner for Nature writing in 2025 is a lyrical account of Chloe’s chance meeting with an orphaned leveret and the journey they take together. Magical and uplifting.

Sno: a history By Sverker Sorlinn. A great read. Full of interest often unexpectedly so, with passages about the art, science, and culture concerning snow woven into the narrative.