Tag: Publisher of the month

Penguin Random House South Africa is the leading specialist Natural History publisher in southern Africa. Written by the region’s respected authorities in their fields, they are essential reading for anybody visiting, or fascinated by its unique and spectacular flora and fauna. In 2015, Random House Struik  and Penguin Books South Africa merged to form Penguin Random House South Africa and their publishing out-put has been going from strength to strength.

Recent and forthcoming

Recent publications have included: an update to the Field Guide to Common Trees & Shrubs of East Africa, a new title describing South Africa’s Scorpions and a guide to Fungi of South Africa and one for the region’s Dragonflies, both published soon.

Bestsellers

Our top five bestselling Penguin Random House South Africa titles:

SASOL Birds of Southern Africa
Paperback| Oct 2011| £12.50 £15.50
Meticulously illustrated, with labels pinpointing key differentiating features. Distribution maps show the relative abundance of a species in the region and also indicate resident or migrant status.

Stuarts’ Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa
Paperback| Oct 2017| £13.99 £16.99
Detailed descriptions of each species, offering insight into key identification characters, typical behaviour, preferred habitat, food choice, reproduction and longevity.

Field Guide to Succulents of Southern Africa
Paperback| August 2017| £14.50 £17.50
User-friendly, richly illustrated field guide features more than 700 southern African succulents, focusing on the most interesting and commonly encountered species.

Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa
Paperback| August 2005| £15.99 £18.99
The introduction discusses biology, behaviour and anatomy, and a comprehensive section on individual butterfly species provides a wealth of information.

Baobabs of the World
Paperback| August 2016| £9.99 £12.99
An extraordinary and majestic tree found principally in Madagascar, and peripherally in Africa and Australia.

We are delighted to feature Penguin Random House South Africa as our Publisher of the Month for August and look forward to them continuing to publish books celebrating southern Africa’s remarkable wildlife heritage.

And, with some great price offers in August across all their UK distributed titles, now is a great opportunity to discover South Africa’s flora and fauna.

All price promotions valid until August 31st 2019

Little Toller Books  are celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, and we are delighted to make them our Publisher of the Month for July. In 2009 Adrian and Gracie Cooper began re-publishing some of the great ‘lost’ works of rural writing – like The South Country By Edward Thomas and Four Hedges by Clare Leighton, with introductions by contemporary writers and beautiful new jackets.  Thus,  the backbone of Little Toller’s publishing – Nature Classics was conceived.

Little Toller publish new writers too; such as Peter Marren’s recently published comprehensive guide to the names of our butterflies and moths –Emperors, Admirals and Chimney Sweepers; and Landfill by Tim Dee (who recently took the time to answer some questions for the NHBS blog, an ode to gulls, which has been recently long-listed for the  Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2019. 

Little Toller remains ambitious; following on from The Ancient Woods of the Helford River, a second posthumous title from Oliver Rackham – The Woods of South East Wales will be published later this year.  Also forthcoming, and due in August is Living with Trees, a practical book about how we can live better with trees and allow them to enhance our landscapes. Little Toller Books have also recently secured the publishing rights for teenage naturalist Dara McAnulty’s book Diary Of A Young Naturalist.

Ten years of nature writing

With Emperors, Admirals and Chimney Sweepers; and Landfill stealing the show recently, we have selected five other stand-out books from across their ten years of publishing:

Orison for a Curlew
Paperback| July 2017| £6.99 £7.99
A story of the struggles of conservation and a homage to the Slender-Billed Curlew, a bird that may never be seen again.

Arboreal: A Collection of New Woodland Writing
Hardback| Oct 2017| £16.99 £19.99
An anthology exploring the relationship between trees, woods and people.

The South Country
Paperback| June 2009| £7.99 £9.99
Edward Thomas’s lyrical, passionate, and sometimes political writing merges natural history with folk culture in The South Country.

The Ash Tree
Paperback| Nov 2016| £7.99 £9.99
Oliver Rackham’s call for a radical shift in our attitude to trees – there is no more urgent message for our times.

Cornerstones Subterranean Writings
Hardback| April 2018| £12.99 £15.99
Some of the UK’s leading landscape and nature writers consider the depth of their relationships with the ground beneath their feet.

All price promotion valid until July 31st 2019

With Spring finally upon us, NHBS are delighted to announce the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (BSBI) as our Publisher of the Month for April.

BSBI: Origins and Aims

The BSBI has a long and illustrious history as a publisher of books and periodicals aimed at both professional and amateur botanists. Tracing its origins back to 1836, the society was founded as the Botanical Society of London; from its earliest days, the BSBI has welcomed and supported everyone who wants to know more about the British and Irish flora. The society’s training, outreach and research  programmes continue to support botanists at all skill levels.

BSBI Publications

The BSBI publishes a range of botanical books; their BSBI handbooks have become standard botanical field guides, containing identification keys, detailed plant descriptions and useful line drawings, together with information on habitat and distribution. They also publish important stand-alone titles, such as Hybrid Flora of the British Isles and Threatened Plants in Britain and Ireland.

The BSBI have been instrumental in helping to publish John Poland’s critically acclaimed The Vegetative Key to the British Flora and most recently, after years of work, The Field Key to Winter Twigs – both vital reference for field botanists.

Forthcoming Publications: BSBI Atlas 2020

The first atlas of the British and Irish flora was published in 1962. It pioneered the use of ‘dot-maps’ aligned to the OS grid which influence  the hundreds of natural history grid-based atlases that followed.  Work has already started on a third atlas; Atlas 2020  will be published after fieldwork has been completed in 2019. You can find out more, or even get involved by visiting their website.

You can browse all the BSBI publications here

Find out more about BSBI

The BSBI is passionate about the flora of Britain and Ireland and encourages everybody to become involved.  If you are a novice and want to get started in botany, their get started page is definitely worth a visit.  And if you want to put your botanical knowledge to use, opportunities for volunteers can be found here.

BSBI’s blog often features interviews with authors such as Kevin Walker, author of Threatened Plants in Britain and Ireland and John Poland (The Field Key to Winter Twigs).

British & Irish Botany Journal

British & Irish Botany is a new online journal from the BSBI. The journal aims to provide a new forum for publishing papers and articles relating to the vascular plants and charophytes of Britain and Ireland.

British and Irish Botany will welcome contributions in a number of formats and you can find out more about this forum here.

With a recent publication reviewing the status of Britain’s mammals, now is a good time to feature The Mammal Society as the NHBS Publisher of the Month for January.

Last year saw the publication of the first comprehensive review of the status of British mammal populations for over 20 years and and the more concise Britain’s Mammals 2018. These works provide vital reference texts for anybody working within UK mammal conservation and both titles express The Mammals Society’s commitment to science-led mammal conservation.

Forty Years of Publishing

To celebrate The Mammal Society, we are offering 20% discount on four of their important titles throughout January.

The Water Vole Mitigation Handbook £19.99 £24.99

Mammals of the British Isles Handbook £27.99 £34.99

How to Find and Identify Mammals £9.99 £11.99

UK BAP Mammals Interim Guidance for Survey Methodologies, Impact Assessment and Mitigation £9.99 £11.99

Future Publications

The Mammal Society aims to continue to publish new and updated titles in 2019 and beyond. We are particularly looking forward to a new edition to the long out-of-print Live Trapping of Small Mammals A Practical Guide which is currently in preparation.

The Mammal Society and NHBS

NHBS are proud to be the official distributor for all The Mammal Society books and are delighted to be able to help them communicate their expertise to passionate naturalists and conservation professionals alike.

From Britain’s Mammals 2018, to The Analysis of Owl Pellets and How to Find and Identify Mammals: browse all publications by The Mammal Society.

2019 Mammal Photographer of the Year

Taken a great photo of a British mammal?

Why not enter the Mammal Society’s 2019 Mammal Photographer of the Year competition? The competition is for amateur photographers, it’s free to enter and, as well as the chance of getting some great national coverage, you could win a £50 NHBS voucher or a year’s subscription to British Wildlife magazine, among many other prizes including a holiday! Go to https://www.mammal.org.uk/mpoy/ for more details on how to enter and full terms and conditions. Closing date for entries 1 March 2019.

Mammal Photographer of the Year 2018

With a heritage stretching back 200 years, HarperCollins is one of the world’s leading publishers and has an extensive catalogue covering both fiction and non-fiction. We are pleased to announce that they are our Publisher of the Month for November and December. 

HarperCollins are pioneers in the world of natural history publishing and are renowned for their extremely popular New Naturalist series, iconic Collins Field Guides and a fantastic range of other natural history and popular science titles.

New Naturalist

The New Naturalist series, established in 1945, is arguably the most influential natural history series in the world, and first editions have long been collector’s items. The series has been revitalised in recent years with many more titles planned for the future.

November 2018 sees the arrival of Volume 138 The Burren and in 2019 we can look forward to Gulls and Garden Birds, with The Honey Bee also planned for the end of the year.

We will have a limited number of signed first editions of  The Burren available. Customers with standing orders and pre-orders will be automatically allocated signed stock, but additional copies are limited so place your order now if you would like to guarantee yourself a signed book.

We hope to offer a limited number of signed first editions of future New Naturalist volumes. Priority for these will be given to customers taking out a standing orders for the series:  a standing order ensures you receive all new releases in a series, although they are not a commitment to buy and can be cancelled anytime.  To find out more about setting up a standing order for the New Naturalist series, please contact Customer Services by email: customer.services@nhbs.com or phone 01803 865913.

Collins Field Guides

HarperCollins are famous for the distinctive black jackets on their Collins Field Guides. These are consistently popular with naturalists and ecologists throughout Britain. In fact, the Collins Bird Guide is our all-time bestselling book here at NHBS! Covering Europe and the UK’s flora and fauna, these field guides set the benchmark for quality descriptions, illustrations and distribution maps.

 The Field Guide series also encompasses guides for other locations around the world, the most recent addition to the collection being Birds of the Philippines. These field guides are written by well-known authors and showcase beautiful artwork from some of the world’s best natural history illustrators.

Nature Writing and Popular Science

HarperCollins also publish a wide range of narrative nature writing; from tales of the perilous lives of seabirds in The Seabirds Cry, a celebration of the geological past in Life: An Unauthorised Biography, poignant wildlife studies in The Great Soul of Siberia to the astonishing intelligence of cephalopods in Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life

Special offers on HarperCollins books

We have special offer prices on most of our HarperCollins books from now until the end of the year.  A perfect opportunity to pick up a gift or to treat yourself this winter.

The Ray Society is the NHBS Publisher of the Month for October.  To celebrate this, we have applied some special offers to a selection of their titles. View all Ray Society publications here.

The Ray Society was founded in 1844 by George Johnston with the aim of publishing the types of specialised, yet important, natural history books that were often overlooked or refused by other publishers based on the small profit that they would make.

The society was named in honour of John Ray (1628 – 1705), an eminent British natural historian. Ray was born in Essex and educated at Cambridge University. He published numerous works on botany, zoology and natural theology and his theories and writings are widely recognised as laying the foundations for the later works of both Linnaeus and Darwin.

Early membership of the Ray Society included HRH Prince Albert, William Yarrell, Richard Owens and Charles Darwin. More recently, Geoff Boxshall, Maurice Burton, Roger Lincoln, David McClintock, Brian Morton, Elizabeth Platts (our first female president), William Stearn, Alwynne Wheeler and many others have been active members. A detailed account of the history of the Society by Elizabeth Platts can be read on the Ray Society’s webpage.

To date, the Ray Society has published 179 books with special, but not exclusive, reference to the flora and fauna of the British Isles. One of their most recent publications, Dudley Clayton’s Charles Parrish, was co-published with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and includes all of Parish’s stunning paintings of Burmese Orchids. Other notable books published by the Ray Society include Gilbert White’s The Natural history and Antiquities of Selbourne, John Ray’s Methodus Plantarum Nova and An Introduction to Copepod Diversity by Geoffrey Boxshall and Sheila Halsey.

We are delighted to announce that NHBS has recently taken over the distribution of Ray Society publications. The timing is particularly exciting with the upcoming publication of George Else and Mike Edwards’ authoritative and comprehensive Handbook of the Bees of the British Isles. A culmination of over forty years of study, the production of this book has been supported throughout by the Ray Society and much of the original artwork was commissioned and funded by them.