To visit another page, just click on: go to the Green Bookshelf. If you’d like to suggest a book, scroll down to the webform at the bottom of the page. In case you missed it, the recent Stratford Herald write-up is found in the 9th October 2025 edition, p, 10, at this link (password required).
Book ideas: *Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 2021 (resisting the attention economy); *Petru Popescu, Amazon Beaming, 1991 (Amazonian exploration); *Rob Dunn, Never Home Alone, 2018 (home ecology!); *Partha Dasgupta, Natural Capital, 2025 (more than economics); *Rupert Read, Liam Kavanagh & Rosie Bell (Eds.). The Climate Majority Project, 2024 (adaptation / resilience / activism); *Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry, 2024 (alternative economics).
Shipston Green Book Talks Coming Up
Thursday 15 October, 11am, Shipston Library.
Book: Eva Meijer, Bird Cottage, London: Pushkin Press.
Chosen by Vanessa
Regular date: the third Thursday of the month, 11am, unless otherwise indicated, Shipston Library..
Save the dates: Thursday 16 July, 20 August, …. 15 Oct,
NOTE THIS OFF-CYCLE DATE: WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER. Watch this space!!
Book suggestions always welcome via WhatsApp, on the webform, or in person in the Green Book Talk.
Thursday 16 July, 11am, Shipston Library.
Book: Richard Powers, The Overstory. W. W. Norton, 2018.
Shipston Green Book Talks Looking Back
Regular date: the third Thursday of the month, 11am, unless otherwise indicated, Shipston Library..
The Great Big Green Week Book Talk: 18 June
Book: Suzanne Simard. When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World. Allen Lane, 2026.
Thursday 21 May, 11am, Shipston Library.
Books: Martin Puchner, The Language of Thieves: The Story of Rotwelsch and One Family’s Secret History, London: Granta, 2021.
Katie Holten, The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives, London: Elliot & Thompson, 2023.
Chosen by Julie and Carole
Book Talk No 4…..
Thursday 16th April, 11am, Shipston Library.
Book: Rebecca Nesbitt, Tickets for the Ark: From Wasps to Whales – How Do We Choose What to Save? London: Profile Books, 2022..
Chosen by Tony, SCA, suggestion borrowed by Julie
Third Shipston Green Book Talk
Thursday 19th March, 11am, Shipston Library
Book: Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk. London: Penguin, 2014.
Second 2026 Shipston Green Book Talk:
Thursday 19th February; at 11am
Shipston Library
Book: Ed Yong, I Contain Multitudes. The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life. London: Vintage, 2017.
suggested by Paul W .
First 2026 Shipston Green Book Talk:
Thursday 15th January 11am.
Brian Aldiss, Hothouse, London: Penguin, 1961, 2008.
Pre-Christmas 2025 Shipston Green Book Talk:
Thursday 18th December 2025 11am
Book: Michael J. Hathaway. What a Mushroom Lives for: Matsutake and the Worlds they Make (Princeton University Press, 2022).
Note: UNFCCC COP 30 ran from 10 to 21 November 2025.
November 2025
20th November 11am.
Isabella Tree. Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm. London: Picador, 2018.
Nick Hayes and Jon Moses. Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You (London: Bloomsbury, 2025).
Books chosen by Heidi.
Carbon Literacy Action Day (CLAD) fell on 13 November 2025.
October 2025
Book chosen by Paul W.
Paco Calvo with Illustrations by Natalie Lawrence. Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence. The Bridge Street Press, 2022.
In Shipston Library, in the course of Green Libraries Week, 27-31 October
September 2025
Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton (Edinburgh: Canongate).
This was an extra Green Book Talk on the occasion of the Shipston Bookfest.
September 2025
Robert MacFarlane, Is a River Alive (London: Hamish Hamilton). With special guest Mary Manandhar, Convener of River Hope.
August 2025
Philip Khoury, A New Way to Bake: Re-imagined Recipes for Plant-Based Cakes, Bakes and Desserts (London: Hardie Grant, 2023).
Georgina Hayden, Nistisima: the Secret to Delicious Vegan Cooking from the Mediterranean and Beyond (London: Bloomsbury, 2022).
July 2025
Dom Phillips and Contributors, How to Save the Amazon: a Journalist’s Deadly Quest for Answers. London: Ithaka, 2025.
Great Big Green Week: 7~14 June 2025
David R. Montgomery, Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life (New York: W.W.Norton, 2018). Shipston Library.
In this discussion, we drew on Isabella Tree (Wilding) and George Monbiot (Regenesis).
May 2025
Samantha Harvey, Orbital (London: Vintage, 2024, ebook).
April 2025
John Lewis-Stempel. A Natural History of England (London: Transworld, 2024 ebook).
March 2025
Guy Shrubsole, The Lost Rainforests of Britain (London: William Collins, 2023).
February 2025
Derek Gow, Bringing Back the Beaver: The Story of One Man’s Quest to Rewild Britain’s Waterways (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green, 2020).
January 2025
Amy-Jane Beer, The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wilderness (London: Bloomsbury, 2023).
December 2024
Michael Malay, Late Light: The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World (London: Manilla Press, 2023).
Green Libraries Week, 7~13 October 2024
The Green Book Talks were inspired by a request from Stratford Library: would the Stratford Climate Action / Stratford Net Zero Hub be interested in doing something for Green Libraries week? The first talks duly took place in October 2024 (see the Stratford page).
Shipston’s Green Book Talks, supported by Stourvale Action for the Environment (“SAFE”) and hosted by Shipston’s cosy library, are friendly, relaxed gatherings where the main aims are to enjoy books on ‘green’ and related topics, to wrestle with climate and nature transitions, and to be inspired by good ideas and good writing. No need to read the book. Just turn up. Conversations round the table are always fun, interesting and informative.
If you’d like to suggest a book for the Green Book Shelf, please feel free to do so on the form below. Thank you!
