Roger Morgan-Grenville - Böcker

'This delightful memoir is an inspiring account of changing direction in mid-life, and a passionate plea on behalf of the honeybee.' Daily Mail'A light-hearted account of midlife, a yearning for adventure, the plight of bees, the quest for "liquid gold" and, above all, friendship.' Sunday TelegraphAfter a chance meeting in the pub, Roger Morgan-Grenville and his friend Duncan decide to take up beekeeping. Their enthusiasm matched only by their ignorance, they are pitched into an arcane world of unexpected challenges.Coping with many setbacks along the way, they manage to create a colony of beehives, finishing two years later with more honey than anyone knows what to do with. By standing back from their normal lives and working with the cycle of the seasons, they emerge with a new-found understanding of nature and a respect for the honeybee and the threats it faces.Wryly humorous and surprisingly moving, Liquid Gold is the story of a friendship between two unlikely men at very different stages of their lives. It is also an uplifting account of the author's own midlife journey: coming to terms with an empty nest, getting older, looking for something new.'A great book. Painstakingly researched, but humorous, sensitive and full of wisdom.' Chris Stewart, author of Driving Over Lemons'Beekeeping builds from lark to revelation in this carefully observed story of midlife friendship. Filled with humour and surprising insight, Liquid Gold is as richly rewarding as its namesake. Highly recommended.' - Thor Hanson, author of Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees

'Shearwater is sheer delight, a luminous portrait of a magical seabird which spans the watery globe' Daily Mail.'Charming and impassioned ... a rich tribute to an extraordinary bird.' Horatio Clare, author of A Single Swallow and Heavy Light.A very personal mix of memoir and natural history from the author of Liquid Gold.Ten weeks into its life, a Manx shearwater chick will emerge from its burrow and fly 8,000 miles from the west coast of the British Isles to the South Atlantic. It will be unlikely to touch land again for four years.Part memoir, part homage to wilderness, Shearwater traces the author's 50-year obsession with one of nature's supreme travellers. In the finest tradition of nature writing, Roger Morgan-Grenville, author of Liquid Gold - described by Mary Colwell (Curlew Moon) as 'a book that ignites joy and warmth' - unpicks the science behind its incredible journey; and into the story of a year in the shearwater's life, he threads the inspirational influence of his Hebridean grandmother who instilled in him a love of wild places and wild animals.Full of lightly-worn knowledge, acute human observation and self-deprecating humour, Shearwater brings to life a truly mysterious and charismatic bird.

'Funny, insightful and hugely informative ... a charming book' DAILY MAIL'Tremendous ... We all need to take stock, and this is the ideal starting point. I learnt a lot from this book and laughed a lot too.' ROSAMUND YOUNG, author of The Secret Life of CowsSince highland cattle ransacked his grandmother's vegetable patch when he was six, Roger Morgan-Grenville has been fascinated by cows.So at the age of 61, with no farming experience, he signed on as a part- time labourer on a beef cattle farm to tell their side of the story. The result is this lyrical and evocative book.For 10,000 years, cow and human lives have been intertwined. Cattle have existed alongside us, fed and shod us, quenched our thirst, and provided a thousand other tiny services, and yet most of us know little about them. We are also blissfully unaware of the de-natured lives we often ask them to lead.Part history, part adventure and part unsentimental manifesto for how we should treat cows in the 21st century, Taking Stock asks us to think carefully about what we eat, and to let nature back into food production.

'Shearwater is sheer delight, a luminous portrait of a magical seabird which spans the watery globe' Daily Mail.'Charming and impassioned ... a rich tribute to an extraordinary bird.' Horatio Clare, author of A Single Swallow and Heavy Light.A very personal mix of memoir and natural history from the author of Liquid Gold.Ten weeks into its life, a Manx shearwater chick will emerge from its burrow and fly 8,000 miles from the west coast of the British Isles to the South Atlantic. It will be unlikely to touch land again for four years.Part memoir, part homage to wilderness, Shearwater traces the author's 50-year obsession with one of nature's supreme travellers. In the finest tradition of nature writing, Roger Morgan-Grenville, author of Liquid Gold - described by Mary Colwell (Curlew Moon) as 'a book that ignites joy and warmth' - unpicks the science behind its incredible journey; and into the story of a year in the shearwater's life, he threads the inspirational influence of his Hebridean grandmother who instilled in him a love of wild places and wild animals.Full of lightly-worn knowledge, acute human observation and self-deprecating humour, Shearwater brings to life a truly mysterious and charismatic bird.

'Funny, insightful and hugely informative ... a charming book' DAILY MAIL'Tremendous ... We all need to take stock, and this is the ideal starting point. I learnt a lot from this book and laughed a lot too.' ROSAMUND YOUNG, author of The Secret Life of CowsSince highland cattle ransacked his grandmother's vegetable patch when he was six, Roger Morgan-Grenville has been fascinated by cows.So at the age of 61, with no farming experience, he signed on as a part- time labourer on a beef cattle farm to tell their side of the story. The result is this lyrical and evocative book.For 10,000 years, cow and human lives have been intertwined. Cattle have existed alongside us, fed and shod us, quenched our thirst, and provided a thousand other tiny services, and yet most of us know little about them. We are also blissfully unaware of the de-natured lives we often ask them to lead.Part history, part adventure and part unsentimental manifesto for how we should treat cows in the 21st century, Taking Stock asks us to think carefully about what we eat, and to let nature back into food production.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RICHARD JEFFERIES AWARD 2023'Roger Morgan-Grenville, one of Britain's leading conservationists' - The HeraldA veteran nature writer walks the length of Britain in pursuit of spring, and of hopeFed up with bleak headlines of biodiversity loss, acclaimed nature writer Roger Morgan-Grenville sets out on a 1,000-mile walk through a British spring to see whether there are reasons to be hopeful about the natural world. His aim is to match the pace at which the oak leaves emerge, roughly 20 miles north each day.Fighting illness, blizzards and his own ageing body, he visits every main habitat between Lymington and Cape Wrath in an epic eight-week adventure, encountering, over and over again, the kindness of strangers and the inspiring efforts of those fighting heroically for nature. With surprising conclusions throughout, what unfolds is both life-affirming and life-changing.

A 2024 Book of the Year pick in The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement and blogs by Mark Avery and Stephen MossThe Return of the Grey Partridge tells the extraordinary story of how wildlife is restored to the Arundel Estate in West Sussex. Prompted by the collapse in numbers of one species, the grey partridge of the title, the managers of the estate woke up to the devastating effect modern farming methods were having on wildlife.Following the estate through the seasons of one year, the book shows how the farm of Peppering is gradually renatured: fields are divided up with hedgerows and trees, beetle banks are built across fields, the land is manured rather than fed with artificial fertilisers, and much of it is returned to pasture. Detailed descriptions of nature give a sense of this large estate coming back to life - still very much farmland, but with a rapid increase in wildlife and biodiversity. And the partridges return.Written in collaboration with the Duke of Norfolk, owner of the Arundel Estate, this moving and hopeful account shows how modern farming can work in partnership with nature to restore not only birdlife but to benefit the whole ecosystem.

A 2024 Book of the Year pick in The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement and blogs by Mark Avery and Stephen MossThe Return of the Grey Partridge tells the extraordinary story of how wildlife is restored to the Arundel Estate in West Sussex. Prompted by the collapse in numbers of one species, the grey partridge of the title, the managers of the estate woke up to the devastating effect modern farming methods were having on wildlife.Following the estate through the seasons of one year, the book shows how the farm of Peppering is gradually renatured: fields are divided up with hedgerows and trees, beetle banks are built across fields, the land is manured rather than fed with artificial fertilisers, and much of it is returned to pasture. Detailed descriptions of nature give a sense of this large estate coming back to life - still very much farmland, but with a rapid increase in wildlife and biodiversity. And the partridges return.Written in collaboration with the Duke of Norfolk, owner of the Arundel Estate, this moving and hopeful account shows how modern farming can work in partnership with nature to restore not only birdlife but to benefit the whole ecosystem.

A veteran nature writer walks the length of Britain in pursuit of spring, and of hopeFed up with bleak headlines of biodiversity loss, acclaimed nature writer Roger Morgan-Grenville sets out on a 1,000-mile walk through a British spring to see whether there are reasons to be hopeful about the natural world. His aim is to match the pace at which the oak leaves emerge, roughly 20 miles north each day.Fighting illness, blizzards and his own ageing body, he visits every main habitat between Lymington and Cape Wrath in an epic eight-week adventure, encountering, over and over again, the kindness of strangers and the inspiring efforts of those fighting heroically for nature. With surprising conclusions throughout, what unfolds is both life-affirming and life-changing.

The island of Britain has over 10,000 miles of coastline, steeped in history and constantly shifting, changing, adapting and providing. The Restless Coast is a moving and beautiful account of a journey around it, during which the author sets out to discover its challenges and opportunities, and to talk to its people.At once delightful travelogue and passionate defence, The Restless Coast shines a powerful spotlight on the thin line that surrounds us, and defines our status as islanders. Overarching the journey is the extraordinary natural history of the coastline, together with the story of how man has imprinted himself on its very geology and shape for countless centuries. Roger Morgan-Grenville addresses the modern challenges that the shoreline faces, and highlights the people who are trying to protect it.Informative, angry and funny, The Restless Coast is a very personal love letter to our island edge.

The island of Britain has over 10,000 miles of coastline, steeped in history and constantly shifting, changing, adapting and providing. The Restless Coast is a moving and beautiful account of a journey around it, during which the author travels its length to discover its challenges and opportunities, and to talk to the people trying to protect it. At once delightful travelogue and passionate defence, The Restless Coast shines a powerful spotlight into the thin line that surrounds us, and defines our status as islanders. Overarching the journey is the extraordinary natural history of the coastline, together with the story of how man has imprinted himself on its very geology and shape for countless centuries. Into the account, Roger Morgan-Grenville threads the modern challenges that the shoreline faces, and the people who are trying to protect it. At once informative, angry and funny, The Restless Coast is a very personal love letter to our island edge. AUTHOR: Roger Morgan-Grenville is a writer, speaker and campaigner on nature and biodiversity, especially in the United Kingdom. In his lifetime, we have effectively lost half of what we had. "We have a giant and uncomfortable opportunity staring us in the face right now. At the same time that biodiversity loss is even more likely to harm us than climate change, it is also generally far easier to restore. Therefore I try to write with a mixture of hope and realism, and of science and anecdote, always conscious that our stories are human ones. We got the place into this mess, and it is only us and our combined efforts that will bring us back out again; we won't mend nature by simply hating the species that has brought it to this point. And there is no situation that is so serious that there isn't room for gentle humor." He also campaign actively to restore the Eurasian Curlew, Britain's biggest wader, to a healthy population, and to bring Natural History back as a permanent feature of our children's education, and not just the privileged ones.

As Roger Morgan-Grenville prepares for a new season with the White Hunter Cricket Club, he is starting to feel his age, so he embarks on a secret plan of coaching, yoga and psychology to improve his game. Will he emerge as a sporting demigod, or will his teammates even notice the difference.This is the humorous and heartwarming story of that cricket season, as the White Hunters go from disaster to triumph. It is a tale of competitiveness, suspense, excellence, hospitality and incompetence, such as the missing fielder found asleep in the woods and the two opening bowlers whose MG Roadster breaks down on the way to the game.From the Castle Ground at Arundel to a field next to a nudist camp in France, players such as the Tree Hugger, the Gun Runner, and their wicket-keeper, the Human Sieve, share the dream that this might be their day. Above all, it is the uplifting story of friendship among a team of not-very-good players who find enough moments of near brilliance to remind them why they turn up for more, game after game, season after season.