Michael Malay

We are delighted to have Michael Malay, author of Late Light and a lecturer in Environmental Humanities at Bristol University. Late Light is a beautiful book which highlights the importance of those overlooked, unloved species. Meeting at the shop at 9:30am, we will head out to try to find some, with Michael as our guide.

Bring sturdy shoes and appropriate weather gear. The route is circular, not too steep and should take about an hour to complete.

Be prepared for biscuits and tea.

This is a book about falling in love with vanishing things

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. Mixing natural history with memoir, this book explores the mystery of our animal neighbours, in all their richness and variety. It is about the wonder these animals inspired in our ancestors, the hope they inspire in us, and the joy they might still hold for our children.

Late Light is about migration, belonging and extinction. 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.