Whales
The song of the bearded seal and other marvels
Amorina Kingdon explores the extraordinary range of sounds beneath the sea, from the fluting calls of the larger mammals to the hums and moans of fish
Notes on the natural world: an exquisite collection from Kathleen Jamie
In short essays and poems, the Scottish makar explores our connections with nature, always mindful of the insignificance of human time compared to the deep time of stones
Four months adrift in the Pacific: a couple’s extraordinary feat of endurance
When a freak occurrence wrecked the Baileys’ sloop 300 miles from the Galapagos, their chances of rescue were minimal – and one of them couldn’t even swim
An absolute earful
Singing sands, the dawn chorus and the crackle of the Northern Lights are among the many natural wonders explored in Caspar Henderson’s paean to the act of listening
Could Leslie Jamison please stop sitting on the fence?
Leslie Jamison is creating quite a stir in America. Her first collection of essays, The Empathy Exams, went straight to…
It’s hard to preserve the primacy of head over heart while watching this doc about refugees
Anybody who wants to maintain a strong and untroubled stance against mass migration to Europe should probably avoid BBC2’s Exodus:…
Cathedral of creation
Sometimes, it pays to rediscover what’s already under your nose. I’ve been umpteen times to the Natural History Museum but…
Spirits from the vasty deep…
‘The sea defines us, connects us, separates us,’ Philip Hoare has written. His prize-winning Leviathan, then a collection of essays…
How humanity learned to love whales (and what they taught us in return)
How humanity learned to love them – and what we learned about ourselves in the process
Henry Worsley and the annals of heroic British failure
So near and yet so far Henry Worsley died in a Chilean hospital of peritonitis after being airlifted from Antartica,…
A whale of a time in the Faroes
The Faroes are a wonderful place to visit, discovers Camilla Swift
Listen: the gaffe from Nicola Sturgeon that everyone missed
It’s not surprising that politicians have such an on-off relationship with the broadcast media. One slip. One casual comment. One…
Mark Amory's diary: Confessions of a literary editor
Until recently I used to claim that I had been literary editor of The Spectator for over 25 years; now…
Why we should let Faroe islanders hunt whales
Marine charities should stop obsessing about a few Faroe islanders and go after the real villains
