But for me, I need to see that sort of glint of light and and, you know, the plants coming through the cracks in the pavement for me to understand what the route forward is.

In West Lothian, Scotland, Flyn climbs enormous slag heaps of spent shale dating to Scotland’s 1860s–1920s heydays of oil production. Aside from the basic premise, which is interesting enough, the element of the book I found most fascinating was the back-stories to all the locations covered, detailing the many and varied.

A haunting journey through the world’s abandoned places, Flyn’s wide-ranging and reflective meditation on how nature continues in humanity’s absence is an eerie yet ultimately optimistic account of ecological diversity. A dark howl of decay and human hubris, shot through with the inevitable rebirth of nature, this book haunted me long after I finished it.

She has studied the scientific literature (carefully referenced in endnotes) and acknowledges the input of two scientists. Her first book, ‘Thicker Than Water’, was a Times book of the year and dealt with the colonisation of Australia and questions of inherited guilt. Flyn wields the pen of a poet but never loses sight of the importance of getting the biological details right. I definitely think nothing can top this for my non fiction reads this year, just wish I had gotten to it. In Detroit, once America’s fourth-largest city, entire streets of houses are falling in on themselves, looters slipping through otherwise silent neighbourhoods.

That's what we as humans find very difficult to think about and that we can often be very impatient when we have conservation projects because we want to see results now. I was very pleased (though I am, of course, biased) to see her discuss evolution this much—and get it right. Because her forays have shown her the power of nature to rebound—albeit damaged, changed, and with great time and effort—she ultimately cannot accept their conclusions. Elsewhere, she travels to Estonia and the land that was once the site of Soviet-era collective farms, and to Plymouth in Montserrat, a town entombed under 40 feet of mud and lava save for the tops of the buildings. There is no fury or gnashing of teeth here; instead, her calmly hypnotic tones chime with the richly descriptive and atmospheric nature of her prose.

And that chapter for me was very magical, it was almost like a fairy story the way that these plants change and colour change and grow or shrink if metal's in their bodies and I just love that. Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape is available on William Collins, 9hr , 6min. Surprisingly rich in ecological and biological detail, Islands of Abandonment is a poetic and spellbinding travelogue. The author brings so much insight and perspective to the abandoned areas discussed, it's incredibly moving. This is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man's lands and fortress islands - and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place.By turns haunted and hopeful, this luminously written world study is pinned together with profound insight and new ecological discoveries that together map an answer to the big questions: what happens after we’re gone, and how far can our damage to nature be undone? This book explores the extraordinary places where humans no longer live – or survive in tiny, precarious numbers – to give us a possible glimpse of what happens when mankind’s impact on nature is forced to stop. And yet, Flyn sees the same everywhere; humans leave* and nature comes rushing back in like an unstoppable tide. Thus, she talks of ecological succession in abandoned landscapes when plants recolonize, including both human wastelands and sites of natural disasters. Flyn tentatively probes the buffer zone that splits Cyprus in two and discusses other examples past and present, such as the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

This is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and fortress islands – and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place. From Tanzanian mountains to the volcanic Caribbean, the forbidden areas of France to the mining regions of Scotland, Flyn brings together some of the most desolate, eerie, ravaged and polluted areas in the world - and shows how, against all odds, they offer our best opportunities for environmental recovery. We pay respect by giving voice to social justice, acknowledging our shared history and valuing the cultures of First Nations.This has been particularly well-studied in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone but is in no way exclusive to it. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. Flyn reveals how “when a place has been altered beyond recognition and all hope seems lost, it might still hold the potential for life of another kind”. Photograph: Chris Page View image in fullscreen Cal Flyn’s hypnotic tones chime with the richly descriptive and atmospheric nature of her prose.