Nature's Ghosts is out today!

The day has finally arrived! Nature's Ghosts is published today.

I've spent the best part of the last four years writing this book, so this feels like a huge moment, and I wanted to share it with you all.

Nature's Ghosts is about the history of the landscape and how it can inform nature conservation today. That means rewilding, of course, but also farming, how we tackle climate change, and how we engage with nature as humans of the 21st century. I may be biased, but I think this is a topic that matters.

The book is the product of a huge amount of research. I have read hundreds of scientific papers and spoken with palaeoecologists, archaeologists, conservationists, rewilders, anthropologists and more. Alongside that, I delved into the myths and stories we tell ourselves about the landscape.

To tell these stories, I travelled across Britain (and to Finland), exploring pinewoods, bogs, farmland and lakes. It has also been a bit of an adventure through time: I have written about everything from the Last Interglacial to the Neolithic to the Dark Ages and beyond, exploring how landscapes and wildlife have changed during that time.

If you want to know more, I'm delighted to say that the Guardian has published a short extract today.

I know some of you have already pre-ordered – thank you so much. Please do let me know what you think. My dream is that Nature's Ghosts becomes the start of a wider conversation about how we integrate the past into our vision for the natural world; how we might draw upon the richness of record and memory to create a wonderful, wild, enchanting future.

For anyone else interested in reading it, then I'm pleased to say that Nature's Ghosts is in all good bookshops now, as well as all the usual online places – bookshop.org is a particular favourite of mine. Here it is in Waterstones Newcastle! My husband and I couldn't resist popping down for a look at lunchtime.

Finally, I want to thank everyone here for being so supportive. Running Inkcap Journal while writing a book and raising a toddler has been a stretch, but the warmth and kindness I have received from readers has spurred me on. It is amazing to feel that so many people have your back.

Finally finally, my husband surprised me this morning with Nature's Ghosts-themed family t-shirts, and I cannot help but share! This is my daughter, Clara – the light of my life and the cause of many missed deadlines.