Dynamic naturalist Michael Blencowe has travelled the globe to uncover the fascinating backstories of 11 extinct animals, which he shares with charm and insight in Gone.

Inspired by his childhood obsession with extinct species, Blencowe takes us around the globe - from the forests of New Zealand to the ferries of Finland, from the urban sprawl of San Francisco to an inflatable crocodile on Brighton’s Widewater Lagoon. Spanning five centuries, from the last sighting of New Zealand’s Upland Moa to the 2012 death of the Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, Lonesome George, his memoir is peppered with the accounts of the hunters and naturalists of the past as well as revealing conversations with the custodians of these totemic animals today. 

Warm, wry, and thought-provoking, Gone shows that while each extinction story is different, all can inform how we live in the future. Discover and learn from the stories of the:  

• Great Auk. A majestic flightless seabird of the North Atlantic and the "original penguin".
• Spectacled Cormorant. The "ludicrous bird" from the remote islands of the Bering Sea. 
• Steller’s Sea Cow. An incredible 10-tonne dugong with skin as furrowed as oak bark. 
• Upland Moa. The improbable birds and the one-time rulers of New Zealand. 
• Huia. The unique bird with two beaks and twelve precious tail feathers. 
• South Island Kōkako. The "orange-wattled crow", New Zealand’s elusive Grey Ghost. 
• Xerces Blue. The gossamer-winged butterfly of the San Francisco sand dunes. 
• Pinta Island Tortoise. The slow-moving, long-lived giant of the Galápagos Islands. 
• Dodo. The superstar of extinction. 
• Schomburgk’s Deer. A mysterious deer from the wide floodplains of central Thailand. 
• Ivell’s Sea Anemone. A see-through sea creature known only from southern England.  

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Exhilaratingly curious.' Evening Standard

'Gripping.' Spectator

'Brilliant.' Penelope Lively

'Indefatigably researched.' Country Life

'Wonderful, quirky.' Tracy Chevalier

Mudlarking, the act of searching the Thames foreshore for items of value, has a long tradition in London. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, mudlarks were small boys grubbing a living from scrap. Modern-day mudlark Ted Sandling shares his passion for unearthing relics of the past from the banks of the Thames and describes his fifty most evocative finds. From Roman tiles to elegant Georgian pottery, these objects create a mosaic of everyday London life through the centuries, touching on the journeys, pleasures, vices and industries of a world city. This book celebrates the beauty of small things, and the intangible connection that found objects give us to the past.

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What's the secret of a great comeback? And how do we boost our mental fitness to succeed in sport and life?

The Comeback Quotient provides inspiration and practical advice on building mental endurance and physical stamina. When best-selling sportswriter Matt Fitzgerald went through a coronavirus-George Floyd double whammy, he realized that nobody can escape setbacks in life, so we all need to be able to pull off a comeback. In training for his first triathlon since 2009 and overcoming chronic injury, Matt Fitzgerald puts his ultrarealist mental fitness training to the test.

In The Comeback Quotient, Matt Fitzgerald examines the science and stories behind some of the most astonishing sporting comebacks to uncover a new blueprint to survive and thrive.

Why are some athletes able to overcome overwhelming odds and rebound stronger than ever? And can we unlock the secret of their success?

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