A Grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die... Darwin's theory of natural selection issued a profound challenge to orthodox thought and belief: no being or species has been specifically created; all are locked into a pitiless struggle for existence, with extinction looming for those not fitted for the task. Yet The Origin of Species (1859) is also a humane and inspirational vision of ecological interrelatedness, revealing the complex mutual interdependencies between animal and plant life, climate and physical environment, and - by implication - within the human world. Written for the general reader, in a style which combines the rigour of science with the subtlety of literature. 392pp. Paperback reprint.

Take a deep dive with the Great Whites and chart the survival of a species with Michael Muller's call to arms in a book of breakthrough underwater photography. Dr Allison Kock writes about the sharks in this book as we take a look at a decade at sea and the expeditions, shark statistics, conservation resources, but best of all huge quality underwater photography in both striking black and white and colour marine blue. See the red mouths and jagged teeth exposed, the tiny fearsome eyes and the even tinier bodies of the skilful photographer-divers. A mother feeds her young in the cool blue shallow waters, striped fish circle a Great White, a Hammerhead grazes along the sand at the bottom of an ocean, sharks fight, feed and are cleaned, eye a big colourful catch or skim below the surface. With picture index from Guadalupe Island, to bull sharks in Beqa May 2011, a lemon shark in Grand Bahama Island November 2014, a black tip, blue sharks, mako, nurse sharks and tiger sharks, silky sharks and many great whites and with short descriptions of each. The furthest distance travelled by a tagged shark is 34,500 miles, and the years since sharks' bodies have evolved significantly is 140 million years and 440 million years since sharks first appeared. Apologies if the gatefold page is damaged at the fold in an otherwise mint condition, now very rare Taschen publication. A big and glamorous tribute, pages unnumbered, all in colour. 24cm x 33cm.
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Three award-winning programmes Bibliophile is thrilled to have in stock, exploring England's last wilderness. David Bellamy explores from ground and air the natural environments of Britain's premier wilderness landscapes: the Peak District, our first National Park; the dramatic Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland; and the North Pennines, the wild 'backbone' of Britain. Buy all three DVDs and save even more.

Winner of the Woodland Books of the Year Award, from getting to know the local wildlife to foraging and creating naturally sourced masterpieces, the book is brimming with practical information, intriguing quotes and inspirational ideas. Discover how to carve your own spoon, tell if the Moon is waxing or waning, try forest bathing (surrounding yourself with trees), learn how to make yourself at home amongst the animals and plants on your doorstep in harmony with your surroundings. Wild Rosehip Soup, Hedgerow Jam, Mushroom Mayhem, worm wizardry, litter bug, hunting with a camera, rock art, earth works, wild grass, the wonder of weeds, a colour quest - and that is just the Earth section. We go on to Sky to look at pinecones and seaweed and a halo of ice, shooting stars and a Moon walk; Water going fishing without a rod, skimming stones or dousing; to the Wood for forest bathing and acorn coffee; Feather to make your own bird feeder and understand bird language, pellet power and great bird spectacles; and lastly to Fur, creating an animal highway, understanding tracks, the art of camouflage and pop! goes the weasel. With space for your own notes, clear layout, 192 page decorated paperback.

Award-winning underwater photographer David Doubilet has chosen 15 images (each repeated three times) including photographs of spotted dolphins in the Bahamas, pompano fish feeding in the sands off the Virgin Islands, a beautiful pink jewel anemone growing near New Zealand's Poor Knights Islands, swirling fish around a diver, a cheeky dolphin coming to the camera, bare human feet on the seabed, beautiful coral reefs and an extremely beautiful red striped turtle gliding in clear waters off a tropical island. A quality publication from Phaidon Press, this first edition collection is presented in a sturdy clear plastic wallet for safe keeping before you select one of the 15 images in glorious colour on these expensive-looking large sized postcards, 45 in total. Fantastic value for money.

With around 200 breathtaking close-ups of the world's most exotic, beautiful and even frankly ugly fish, scuba-diver and photographer David Doubilet has created one of the most stylish volumes in the Phaidon imprint. For colour it is hard to beat the multicoloured bands of the Stoplight Parrot Fish, the orange and turquoise Indonesian Beaked Leather Jacket, or Egypt's Red Sea Coral Grouper with its sharp white teeth offset by a rich red spotty face. Extraordinary in both shape and colouring is the Tomato Clown Fish photographed in Papua New Guinea, while the Spinyhead Blenny from Cuba looks startled by its own luminous weirdness. The close-up of a Stingray from Grand Cayman Island is both perfect in its expanse of whiteness and disturbing in its parody of human facial features. Ragged Tooth Sharks have the same eerie quality, with the sinister addition of the mesh of teeth revealed in their predatory mouths, while a Great White Shark has fewer but more effective teeth. Wild staring eyes are a feature of many fish including the Australian Morwong, the Yellow Damsel Fish, the Map Puffer Fish, or the South African Hotlips Triplefin, where the eyes glow at least as redly as the lips. Many fish have extraordinary camouflage such as the mottled Stone Fish of the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Leafy Sea Dragon or the Bicolour Parrot Fish from the Red Sea. Around 350 unnumbered and gorgeous pages, rare softback.

Beautiful and heart-warming photographs of newborn animals, the book is an intimate look at the early days in a wild baby's life. From an adorably gangly giraffe calf, a wide-eyed elephant seal pup, a playful pair of opossum joeys, an innocent-eyed fluffy zebra, a ruby-throated hummingbird which will take its first flight at 18-22 days old and live a solitary life coming together only to mate, the elusive baby pigeon or squab with its sparce canary yellow downy feathers, and a tiny curled up pink weasel at five days old, and another with shiny black eyes and fur at six weeks old, meerkats, seal pups, a racoon, red fox, cotton-tailed rabbits, and a beautiful red and black striped painted turtle - for each there is not only a full page or double spread colour photograph, but short entries of facts and a longer introduction to the portraits of more than 30 baby animals. 136pp, colour.

This gorgeous volume does exactly what it says on the cover: gives us portraits of kittens from 25 different breeds, both pure and mixed, reproduced on large pages at life size, some with their friends and siblings. A three-week kitten is just beginning to explore the world, and at six weeks is learning how to play. Older kittens, between nine and 12 weeks, are at their most entertaining - rambunctious, athletic, all over the place, and in some cases changing their eye colour and fur colour. Snow White and Gretel are lovely white examples of Cornish Rex, with their huge mesmeric eyes, while Waylon and Oreo, both Tuxedo Mix with their distinctive black and white markings, are photographed at 8 and 9 weeks and are obviously enjoying an audience. Joey is an 11 week old Birman with long silky white fur, weighing 3 lbs, and looking proportionally more like an adult cat than some of the others. True Blue is a 12-week old Oriental with a pointed face, magnificent ears and very short brown fur, while Mabel, a 9-week old Sphynx, has no fur and the highly prized pedigree wrinkled skin. Tonkinese Cosmo is utterly gorgeous at 6 weeks, squeezing his eyes shut at first and then coming out to play with his mate Joe, both of them adorable. Bella is an Exotic Longhair, with thick unruly brown fur at 9 weeks and a squashed-looking face which adds to the pugnacious air. Johnny and June are Black Mix kittens, thin in the body with a prowling walk, in total contrast to tiny Tillie, a 6-week-old Napoleon weighing only three quarters of a pound, but very furry and with an expression of cute appeal. Sonnet is a lovely Siamese with huge ears and those arresting blue eyes, at 7 weeks weighing in at almost 2 lbs. Four 4-week old Siamese kittens, Twist, Cachet, Rhyme and Melody, are pictured playing together in a tangle of legs, ears and tails. 120 VERY LARGE pages 33 x 28cm, life-size photos. A total delight for a cat lover.

Sub-titled 'Life, Love and Lambing in the Middle of Nowhere - A Shepherdess's Story' here is a great read about a strong young lady who loves the companionship of her award-winning sheepdogs. When shepherdess Emma Gray breaks off her engagement, the chance to take over an isolated Northumberland farm seems just the fresh start she needs. But while the beautiful scenery offers plenty of scope for contemplation, a date with an eligible bachelor soon seems more remote than the farm itself. And once you add fugitive sheep and freak blizzards into the mix, Emma's dreams of a happy life quickly begin to fade. Winters are harsh and despite her unrelenting tenacity Emma kicks each obstacle out of the way and for the most part retains her sense of humour. Throughout the long nights of lambing and the day-to-day chores of running a large farm, Emma's four collies are her most loyal companions and with them by her side she'll never really be alone. You may have seen Emma on television's Farming Life and this is her story of her remarkable first year at Fallowlees Farm, an inspiration for anyone who has ever dreamt of starting all over again. 276pp, paperback.

The growth of the scientific study of earthquakes is woven into this far-reaching history. The story begins with a series of earthquakes in England in 1750. Today seismologists can monitor the vibrations of the planet second by second, and the movement of tectonic plates millimetre by millimetre, yet even in the 21st century great earthquakes are still essentially 'acts of god', striking with much less warning than volcanoes, floods, hurricanes and even tornadoes and tsunamis. Since antiquity on every continent human beings in search of attractive landscapes and economic prosperity have made a Faustian bargain with the risk of devastation by an earthquake. Today around half of the world's largest cities, as many as 60, lie in areas of major seismic activity. Many such as Lisbon, Naples, San Francisco, Teheran and Tokyo have been severely damaged or destroyed by earthquakes in the past. Throughout history starting with ancient Jericho, Rome and Sparta, cities have proved to be extraordinarily resilient. Only one, Port Royal in the Caribbean, was abandoned after an earthquake. The book seeks to understand exactly how humans and earthquakes have interacted. In some cases, physical devastation has been followed by decline but in others, the political and economic reverberations of earthquake disasters have presented opportunities for renewal. After its wholesale destruction in 1906, San Francisco went on to flourish, eventually giving birth to the high-tech industrial area on the San Andreas fault known as Silicon Valley. An earthquake in Caracas in 1812 triggered the creation of new nations in the liberation of South America from Spanish rule. Another in Tang Shan in 1976 catalysed the transformation of China into the world's second largest economy. Other chapters look at grief and growth in the land of Gandhi, Gujarat 2001, the tsunami in the Indian Ocean 2004, and meltdown and after in Fukushima 2011. With chronology of earthquakes, maps and references, a very well illustrated 256 page Thames & Hudson 2016 first edition.