Craig Foster's book is a kind of call for us to go back to what he considers to be our true home, the wild. He recounts many remarkable encounters he’s had with animals in the wild. Craig believes that there is a wild creature in all of us, and in the book he looks at practical ways in which we can let that part out to thrive. He examines the way we’ve become domesticated as a species, and how this abandonment of the wild in many ways goes against our inherent nature. At its heart, the book is not only a call for us to go back to nature, but to rebuild and take care of what he refers to as the Mother of Mothers, our biological ecosystem.

Documentary mentioned: 

My Octopus Teacher 

Nonprofit Environmental Storytelling Organisation:

www.seachangeproject.com

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Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize, Samantha Harvey's novel follows six astronauts onboard a spacecraft that's orbiting the Earth. This is a beautifully written book that puts its readers face-to-face with the obscurity of our existence. 

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Daphne Du Maurier's classic novel is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who marries Maxim De Winter and becomes the new mistress of Manderley. We follow her as she tries to navigate living in his first wife, Rebecca’s, shadow, and ultimately uncovering the mystery of her tragic death.

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Emily Bronte's epic novel is set among the Yorkshire moors in the late 18th and early 19th century. Kathy and Heathcliff, two sadistic and unhinged individuals, are madly in love but could never be together in life.

"My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and HE remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it."

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Books mentioned:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Oscar Wilde's only published novel and one of my favourite books of all time.

“"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray, with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it was only the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this--for this--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!"”

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Erich Maria Remarque's classic novel follows a young German soldier named Paul who is sent to the frontline during WWI in Germany’s fight against France. This is one of the most important novels about WWI, not just because of how incredibly well written it is, but because it was one of the first texts to show the true face of  WWI, away from the romanticisation of war and patriotism. It’s a true anti-war novel that reflects the brutal realities of trench warfare.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel follows a young Nigerian woman named Ifemelu who, at the age of 19, moves to America from Nigeria for her education. As she tries to navigate the complexities of life as a Black African immigrant, she becomes aware of race and her own blackness more soberly than she ever had before in her life.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story | TED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&t=568s 

Book mentioned:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Khaled Hosseini's novel is set in Afghanistan and opens in the early 1970s. The story takes place over a 30 year period and follows two main characters, Mariam and Laila, co-wives to an extremely abusive man named Rasheed. This is a beautifully written novel that reflects the reality of a life lived in the shadow of shame. 

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Books mentioned:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Patrick Grant's book is about the crisis of consumption and quality in fashion. He looks at how we might make ourselves happier by rediscovering the joy of living with fewer, better quality things. 

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Community Clothing: https://communityclothing.co.uk/ 

Milan Kundera's novel follows a Czech surgeon named Tomas and his wife Tereza between the late 1960s and early 1970s. It takes place mainly in Prague during the Prague Spring of 1968, which was a period of political reform in Czechoslovakia. This is an inherently philosophical novel, the title is a reference to notions of lightness and weight as they relate to human existence. Kundera asserts that life occurs only once, without repetition, making it "light" and fleeting because actions can’t be undone or judged by eternal consequences.

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Book mentioned:

Unbearable Lightness by Portia De Rossi