Review
------
In this utterly charming fusion of science and navel-gazing,
one discovers creatures that seem to belong to the outer limits
of human imagination--including, somewhat surprisingly, humans.
There aren't words to describe how beautiful this volume is, or
the feelings it evokes. Stunning. --Booksmith
This is much more than a basic bestiary. --Pick of the
Paperbacks, The Sunday Times
This is not just a beautiful book - it is an important one. *****
--Independent on Sunday
This extraordinary and exotic book is a hugely important work.
Superficially, it can be enjoyed as an expose of the many weird
and wonderful creatures we share our planet with. But it is also
a profound journey during which we have rtunities to
speculate on the much bigger questions: the origins of life, the
purpose of consciousness, the destiny of technology and the
prospects for human existence beyond our biosphere. --Ecohustler
This is not just a beautiful book - it is an important one. *****
--Independent on Sunday
The real is often more wondrous than the imaginary. So it proves
with Caspar Henderson's beautifully conjured world of barely
imagined beings - ranging from the amazing jumping spider to
Venus's Girdle, an ancient comb jelly - out now in paperback.
--'Best Science Books', New Statesman
Henderson jumps smoothly from scientific information to history
to fiction to anecdote and uses each creature as a window into
the human mission to understand and interpret the world. There is
something lovely about a book that takes on so many disciplines
and tackles them with confidence. Henderson presents us with
something that stays in the memory long after the book is put
back on the shelf. --Guardian
A series of Montaignesque essays that celebrate the diversity of
life while at the same time journeying through the cultural and
technological landscape of humanity's achievements - and threats
we make on the planet. --'Best Books of the Year', Scotsman
Henderson jumps smoothly from scientific information to history
to fiction to anecdote and uses each creature as a window into
the human mission to understand and interpret the world. There is
something lovely about a book that takes on so many disciplines
and tackles them with confidence. Henderson presents us with
something that stays in the memory long after the book is put
back on the shelf. --Guardian
'A glorious A-Z of natural oddities' --Independent
'Caspar Henderson's great bestiary, this book of barely imagined
beings, which has recently come out - where growth, and
astonishment, and wonder, and effervescence are wildly
reconfigured as kinds of virtue' --Robert MacFarlane discusses
The Book of Barely Imagined Beings on the Orion Magazine Podcast
'The most beautiful publication I have read in many years. Caspar
is a writer of extreme charm, wit and intelligence. The scale of
Caspar's ambition is as remarkable as the depth of his reading.
Caspar perfectly judged the digression coefficient to keep us on
track, though we remain always interested in what sweet madness
may be around the corner. His writing is funny and wise' --Hugh
Warick, Resurgence and Ecologist
'Caspar Henderson's great bestiary, this book of barely imagined
beings, which has recently come out - where growth, and
astonishment, and wonder, and effervescence are wildly
reconfigured as kinds of virtue' --Robert MacFarlane discusses
The Book of Barely Imagined Beings on the Orion Magazine Podcast
About the Author
----------------
CASPAR HENDERSON has been a journalist and editor with
various publications and broadcasters, including BBC Radio 4, the
Financial Times, the Independent, Nature, New Scientist and
openDemocracy (where he was senior editor for three years). He is
a past recipient of an IUCN-Reuters award for best environmental
reporting in Western Europe. He co-authored Our Fragile Earth
(2005, New Internationalist) and was the commissioning editor for
Debating Globalization (2005, Polity).