LONGLISTED FOR THE JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON CONSERVATION.

How should we restore nature and species, and why does it matter? What is lost when we choose not to engage in restoration of the natural world? And which parts of ourselves might we also lose if we choose not to help restore and renew the natural world before it's too late?

In this collection, Karen Lloyd explores abundance and loss in the natural world, relating compelling stories of restoration, renewal and repair, describing how those working on the front lines of conservation are challenging the inevitability of biodiversity loss, as well as navigating her own explorations of the meaning of abundance in the Anthropocene.

In an era of urgent ecological challenge, this timely book reveals the places that people are coming together to bring species and habitats back from the edge of extinction. Yet, elsewhere, many other species are being allowed to disappear forever. To understand why, she examines how humans have chosen to entangle themselves in nature and considers the ways we perceive the natural world.

A book about ways of seeing, as Lloyd explores attitudes towards meaningful restoration, she weaves her insightful and joyous narrative through a diverse range of inspiring landscapes, from Romania's Carpathian mountains and the Hungarian Steppe to Perthshire's rivers and the dune forests of the Netherlands.

Karen Lloyd is a writer of non-fiction, poetry and journalism. Abundance is her third work of non-fiction. Her first book, The Gathering Tide: A Journey Around the Edgelands of Morecambe Bay, was selected as a top read in the Observer Authors' Books of the Year in 2016. The Blackbird Diaries was published in 2017. Both won prizes at The Lakeland Book of the Year Awards. Karen is also an environmental activist and edited and published the anthology Curlew Calling to raise awareness of the perilous state of Britain's lowland curlews.