Eco recommends admin November 13, 2024 0 Comments

5 Exciting Connections With Nature Book Updates

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Connections With Nature: 50 Moments of Meeting the Wild, our anthology of nature writing, photography, poetry and art from The Wildlife Blogger Crowd launched just over 2 months ago, and so far we’ve been off to a fantastic start, with even Sir David Attenborough himself looking forward to reading his copy of the book.

More than just a book, the ‘Connections With Nature’ project has been about connecting people from the start; giving our community members a platform for sharing stories and the public a chance to share in our enthusiasm for nature and wildlife — perhaps even becoming inspired to build some connections of their own. Here are some of our highlights from the last couple of months…

We held our first in-person book event

At the end of November, we held our first in-person Connections With Nature book event at Not Just Books in Thetford, featuring contributorsBerenice Tregenna,Rachael Barber, Nick Stephenson and Rosemary Snowdon.

We talked about how and why the book was made, what the background was to our contributions and blogs, and how we’re using sales of the book for good, including supporting organisations like World Land Trust, and how we’re partnering with Talek Primary School in Kenya.

You can watch the event in full below:

To encourage the connections with our natural world to carry on beyond the event, I made up some goodie bags for everyone who came, filled with information on engaging with local wildlife and organisations, such as BTO Birds, growing your own fruit and veg, having a greener Christmas and a wildlife days calendar for next year — as well as some bird seed, a bird ID chart and a wildlife recording sheet.

We’ve been featured in the Bury Free Press newspaper

In the days before our event, the book received some wonderful coverage in the Bury Free Press newspaper, about the story behind our Connections With Nature book, the The Wildlife Blogger Crowd at large, and our planned event at Not Just Books in Thetford.

“A journalist, blogger and wildlife campaigner, originally from Thetford, is returning home on Saturday with her new book…”

You can read the full coverage here, or by clicking on the image below.

We’ve been listed as one of ‘The Best Books to Buy — or Ask For — This Christmas’

How cool is this?! We’ve been selected as one of the best books to buy — or ask for — this Christmas and featured on Great British Life’s website; the publishers of regional ‘Life’ magazines up and down the country.

A huge thank you to our lovely friend Jane James from Not Just Books for putting us forward for this list, collated by Norfolk Magazine.

Read the full article here, or by clicking on the image below.

If you are thinking of picking up a copy for a Christmas present (it sure would make a lovely stocking filler ☺️), you can find Connections With Nature in a couple of the bookshops mentioned on this list — @notjustbooksthetford in Thetford and @bookbugsdragontales in Norwich.

The book, it’s production and the money we’ve raised for charity was covered in Bloom in Doom Magazine

One of our Wildlife Blogger Crowd members, Emily Gilford, also happens to be senior editor at Bloom in Doom magazine, and was kind enough to interview me for an online feature.

Oh my goodness, what an honour to have our book and the story of its creation depicted in a stunning illustration by Caitlin Niamh Illustrations, with the image even including a little quote from my preface.

I can’t express my gratitude enough to Emily for such a thorough and thoughtful article.

It means a lot to be able to tell the full story of our book — from why I choose to work with Bradt Guides and the decisions we made in the publishing process, to why we’ve chosen to support World Land Trust and why/how we’ve decided to establish an ‘education partner’ in Talek Primary School in Kenya.

Emily even gave me the chance to talk about the distribution and marketing of the book — from electing to stock in independent book shops and gift shops or organisations that support nature (supporting only 1 Amazon, and that’s the one that has trees); to prioritising press copies being sent to the book reviewers within our own community — we really examined all areas of why and how the book reflects the values of those people represented inside.

Please give the feature a read, as it truly does tell the story of Connections With Nature. You can read the full piece here.

Connections With Nature For sale in Waterstones

Just last week, we got our first Waterstones shelf placement (with our wonderful cover art by Chloé Valerie Harmsworth, face-up)! And look at the incredible company we’re keeping!

Huge thanks to Norwich Waterstones for taking a chance on our little book, and for giving us such a fabulous spotlight on the shelves.

Well done to all our contributors for raising your voices for nature and wildlife! I’m so pleased to say that your published writing is available to buy now in Waterstones Norwich, Bookbugs & Dragon Tales and Not Just Books, and hopefully, you’ll be able to find us in a bookshop near you soon!