The Revd Canon Craig Bishop, Rector of St James’ Church, Chipping Campden, shares a selection of books that have informed his thinking on Creation Care. In the reflections that follow, he offers brief reviews of four recommended reads, each exploring our relationship with the natural world and our responsibility to care for it.
Local: a search for nearby nature and wildness by Alastair Humphreys
Many people savoured their daily walks in lockdown. On these repeated journeys, people noticed the minute changes in their locality – the birds, budding flowers – things always present but often overlooked. Sadly, this interest and connection with our local environment has since been lost.
Alastair Humphreys has become disillusioned with his lifestyle, as an adventurer travelling the word. By writing about his experience, he was encouraging other people to follow him and so the wild places he enjoyed were becoming more visited and less wild. On the first page, he asks, ‘If I love wild places so much, was I willing to not visit them in order to help protect them?’
Using an OS map centred on his house, he spends a year exploring each square kilometre. Each chapter represents a different square, taking us through varied landscapes – woods, slat marshes, industrial estates, suburbs, farmland – alongside themes such as birds, litter, gardens, trade, enclosures, and the changes that time has on the built and natural environment.
The short chapters make it easy to pick up and down. They invite us to think of and explore our own locality – to walk unfamiliar footpaths, to turn off the road and spend time in contemplation and wonder. It challenges us think about the complexity of modern life, the things we take for granted and our relationship to the planet.
The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer
Water in the British Isles is abundant and as such it’s easy to take it for granted. Sadly, we are now paying the price for our neglect of this vital resource. Water infrastructure has suffered years of under investment millions of litres of drinking water is lost in leaks, sewerage systems can’t cope, rivers, lakes and the land are all polluted.
This is evident in the places we value. In the Lake District, Windermere has seen significant sewage discharge – more than 140 million litres of wastewater was pumped into Windermere, at times when it was not permitted, between 2021 and 2023. Sewage regularly flows into the Lake not just in storms or after heavy rain but routinely this waste causes algae blooms that remove oxygen from the water and kill the aquatic life.
This book invites us to pause and reflect. Through exploring various waterways and water shaped landscapes she moves between whole systems and individual species. It reminds us to be mindful that although abundant, water is precious. It is vital for our well-being, for life and health. Water is a gift that we should notice, appreciate and cherish.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10
Late Light by Michael Malay
Late Light is both a love letter to, and a lament for, the disappearing nature of the British Isles. Michael is an immigrant to England who falls in love with the natural world but sees human intervention catastrophically impacting the creatures and ecology around us. As he is based in Bristol many of the geographical references are relatively close by.
He focuses on four groups of often overlooked creatures – eels, moths, mussels and crickets. They seldom warrant a place in our affections but each reveals a distinct set of challenges created by a different aspect of environment neglect.
The book provokes fascination, concern, sorrow and horror. It reinforced my desire to learn more about the natural world and to live more intentionally and deliberately; not taking nature for granted.
It is a compelling reminder of the damage humanity is making through unthinking and ignorant neglect of the environment. They present the necessity, the imperative of changing behaviour and deliberately and consciously choosing to live in ways that do not destroy other species. We are all impoverished by a nature depleted world.
The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole
Growing up, I walked from from the edge of Helston to Loe Bar and Porthleven on New Year’s Day with my family. We nicknamed the woods alongside River Cober the Everglades, without realising they were part of a temperate rainforest. These rare ecosystems, shaped by the damp conditions of the western seaboard, create conditions for a, globally rare eco-system of mosses, ferns, lichen and liverworts, mushrooms and fungi.
This book invites us to join Guy on his own journey of discovery. Travelling across the west coast of Britain, he learns about the remnants of temperate rainforests, often hiding in plain sight.
It is shocking that this rare and internationally significant habit hasn’t long been recognised and protected. These woodlands have been cleared, overgrazed, and replaced. People know more about the rainforests in the tropics that they do about the rainforests of their own country. As recently as 10 years ago there was little research about these places. They weren’t mentioned in Parliament before 2021.
However, the book is not without hope. It highlights the successes, advocates and campaigners. Stories of hope and the things that can be done, are being done to arrest their decline and ensure that we and future generations can enjoy and marvel at the rainforests of this isle that we have missed.
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