End of Night

Paul Bogard, PhD., is a widely published author of journalism, creative nonfiction, scholarship and is the editor of ‘Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark’. He has also presented on darkness and light pollution at conferences, universities, nature centres, national parks, bookstores and churches. He studied Literature and Environment at the University of Nevada, and now teaches writing at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

'Forget Brian Cox - Paul Bogard is the kind of guy I'd want to go star-gazing with ... Bogard's delight in the night is infectious ... The appeal of Bogard's book derives not just from his often wide-eyed enthusiasm for his subject, but also from the constellation of characters he encounters on his journeys into the night' Stephanie Cross, Sunday Telegraph. 'Bogard sets about his investigations with an energetic purposiveness and enterprise ... To seek to let back in a little of the lost starlight and allow more of nature's shadow to reassert its balm seem to me both modest and wholesome aims, and Bogard's book does much to make a case for them' Salley Vickers, Observer 'Bogard takes us light years through history, science, psychology, art, folklore and his own travels, looking for an unpolluted dark and starry, starry night' Iain Finlayson, The Times 'Thought provoking ... convincing that artificial light has blinded us to the beauties of the night. Perhaps it's time to follow him over to the dark side' Mail on Sunday 'Bogard's book is a literary journey - in the space of a few pages, we walk with Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens and Retif de la Bretonne. It is also a pilgrimage to our capitals of light. This is a rich book with a rewarding appendix of notes. The big thing is that, as you read it, you too will want to reclaim the night and perhaps rediscover the heavens of the Enlightenment' Nature Magazine 'Does [the end of night] matter? It's impossible to read this thorough and engaging survey of the subject (how much more professionally American writers approach non-fiction) and not be convinced that it does' David Sexton, Evening Standard 'It should be read, and its ardour is impressive' The Scotsman 'Super little book ... This is a hunt for a proper night sky ... and it's proper fascinating' Sunday Sport