Lost Wonders: 10 Tales of Extinction from the 21st Century

Lost Wonders is a book that tells ten powerful stories of species that have lived, died out, and been declared extinct since the turn of the twenty-first century. It is shortlisted for the 2024 Richard Jefferies Award for nature writing and has received praise from Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild. The book brings these lost wonders briefly back to life and gives us a tantalising glimpse of what we have lost within our own lifetime.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 07 November 2024
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Shortlisted for the 2024 Richard Jefferies Award for nature writing, Lost Wonders by Tom Lathan tells ten powerful stories of species that have lived, died out, and been declared extinct since the turn of the twenty-first century. The book is timely, elegiac, and superbly written, with Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild, describing it as "an exhilarating and vital book." Many scientists believe that we are currently living through the Earth's sixth mass extinction, with species disappearing at a rate not seen for tens of millions of years. What does it mean to live in such a time? And what exactly do we lose when a species goes extinct? In Lost Wonders, Tom Lathan brings these lost wonders briefly back to life and gives us a tantalizing glimpse of what we have lost within our own lifetime. Drawing on the personal recollections of the people who studied these species, as well as those who tried but ultimately failed to save them, and with beautiful illustrations by Claire Kohda, Lost Wonders is an intimate portrait of the species that have only recently vanished from our world and an urgent warning to hold on all the more tightly to those now slipping from our grasp.

Weight: 556g
Dimension: 223 x 145 x 40 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529047929