Keggie Carew on Beastly: A New History of Animals & Us

Beastly is the 40,000-year story of animals and humans as it has never been captured before, seen eye-to-eye and claw-to-hand through those humans who have stepped into the myriad worlds of our animal relatives.

Our relationship with animals has always been paradoxical, but the greatest paradox may yet be this: diversity of life can heal ecosystems. Animals - if given the chance - could save us.

Keggie is the author of Dadland, which won the 2016 COSTA biography award, and Quicksand Tales. Now the accomplished author joins us to talk about her latest piece of non-fiction, described as " a dazzling examination of our contradictory attitudes towards the creatures with whom we share the planet . . . [A] fantastic, heartfelt history of human-animal relations."

Keggie will be interviewed by the brilliant author and friend of the bookshop Richard Kerridge.

In a Polish forest a young woman befriends a boar. An Englishman sets up home with two beavers in Saskatchewan. A zoologist watches a fish make a conscious decision. Darwin finds the evidence for evolution in the backyards of pigeon fanciers. The entire population of Croatia anxiously awaits the arrival of a single stork.

Animals have shaped our lives, our land, our civilisation, and they will shape our future. Yet as our impact on the world and the animals we share it with increases, there has never been a greater urgency to understand this foundational relationship.