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

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Late Light is the story of Michael Malay's own journey, an Indonesian-Australian-American making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines. Theresa May's 'hostile environment' for migrants is name-checked explicitly, commenting on how the ways we talk about people and nature can be wildly different, despite the unity we should be feeling. This book considers the miraculous life cycles of a small group of species — eel, cricket, moth, mussel — and explains in pitiless detail the reasons for their looming extinction at our hands.

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. So then he looks at eels, moths, mussels and crickets, speaking to experts, going on field trips, sometimes alone sometimes with a friend, becoming addicted to each creature in turn.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!

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. 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. What elevates this book further for me is his ability to draw links to the politics of such a move, and this book is not naive about the very present realities for many people moving across countries. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.It is mostly set around Bristol and the South West, which makes it of additional interest if you are local. Malay’s version of nature writing, indeed, is thronged with other presences — not for him the windswept, empty uplands so memorably described by Kathleen Jamie as the haunt of the “lone, enraptured male”.

I finished reading it and went for a walk on Troopers Hill with my family a couple of days later, which is the place on the front cover of the book. 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. Late Light' is the story of Michael Malay's own journey, an Indonesian-Australian-American making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines. 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. Malay’s prose is gorgeous and astute; he looks with fresh eyes at unpopular species and finds poetry and meaning.With presences, and with danger: for the enfeebled environment that dooms so many species will inevitably doom us too; there is, in the end, no escape. I adored this beautiful and thoughtful story of Michael Malay's life in the UK, and how he can chart his relationship with the world through its nature.

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. During that first year, I also began filling notebooks with words gleaned from books and friends, terms like ‘heath’, ‘upland’ and ‘fen’, or ‘furze’, ‘hart’s tongue’ and ‘goosegrass’, or ‘Icknield Way’ and ‘Fosse Way’. Recounting how his moves across countries often left him feeling like a migratory bird himself, his utter joy and passion for the natural world is stunningly rendered in this book. Late Light brings the refreshing perspective of someone who goes from seeing England as a foreign place to someone who deeply studies its secret wonders. This is a book about falling in love with vanishing thingsLate Light is the story of Michael Malay's own journey, an Indonesian-Australian-American making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines.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. Its a thoughtfully written and at times quite personal memoir about someone who becomes fascinated by 'uncharismatic' animals that are threatened by the spectre and ongoing reality of extinction and ecological collapse - we follow them on their investigations and encounters with these creatures and the people who care for them, as they draw parallels and insights that are related back to the chapter themes. When Michael Malay came to England at twenty-one, he was enchanted by the green and pleasant land he had read so much about.