Late Light: 'An astonishing read' - AMY LIPTROT, AUTHOR OF THE OUTRUN

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In underscoring the concept of basic dignity as being the right of all species and illuminating the idea of an expansive, planetary politics, Malay offers a bright, fierce hope for the future.

That’s a fascinating set of parallels he seems to draw, and I do love the idea of focusing on creatures often neglected (Blyton in Adventures of Pip chose to highlight smaller animals and insects which I loved too).These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. A chapter from that book, 'American Blue', was recently shortlisted for the Wasafiri Writing Prize (autumn, 2020). It approaches small things with a quiet and tender profundity, and its attentiveness to the quivering of life will leave you aching with world-love. Now, one eel swims in a bucket: Malay notes its inquisitive eyes, and the “dash of red” visible in its translucent body — the creature’s fluttering heart. For readers of Robert Macfarlane, Raynor Winn and Helen Macdonald, Late Light is a rich blend of memoir, natural history, nature writing, and a meditation on being and belonging, from a vibrant new voice.

This book is filled with genuinely thought provoking and sometimes quite touching reflections on things like the nature of home, the solace of friendship and community, loss, paying attention to the world outside of yourself, and the plurality of the tragedy taking place under our noses.

There are fascinating points about land that is reclaimed by nature that fits in with the rewilding books I’ve been reading, but going deeper into smaller areas again. His creative writing has been widely published, including in Little Toller's online magazine The Clearing (of which he was also a co-editor), The Willowherb Review and Dark Mountain.

Late Light is the story of Michael Malay's own journey, an Indonesian Australian making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines.This island that looked, from the heart of the Mendip Hills, like an oasis of interconnected ecosystems, was the site of more losses than we can count. It really captures something about the way our focus and experience of the world shifts, dilates and contracts in the moment as we move through it and encounter it. Befriending naturalists and birders, he began to learn the names of the species and the phenomena that shaped this new life of his: downs; combes; brambles; oystercatcher; skylark – it was the beginning of a love affair. Late Light is the story of Michael Malay’s own journey, an Indonesian Australian making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines.

It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. Through the close examination of four particular ‘unloved’ animals – eels, moths, crickets and mussels – Michael Malay tells the story of the economic, political and cultural events that have shaped the modern landscape of Britain. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed.When Michael Malay came to England at twenty-one, he was enchanted by the green and pleasant land he had read so much about. That was a really good aspect to it, and gave fascinating info about those creatures – I wasn’t so bad with moths as we have an interest in those, but knew little about eels and mussels! By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.