The New Eden

‘A nuanced invitation to see the city as a place of wild co-existence and possibility.’ – Olivia LaingOriginal, profound and wise, this book is rich with knowledge and vitality – Jay Griffiths, author of HOW ANIMALS HEAL USJC Niala skilfully and tenderly weaves together history, memory, and ecology into a beautifully expansive act of care, reminding us that ‘if nature keeps reaching for the light through the cracks in the pavement, then so can we’ … An inspiring and important book. – Victoria Bennett, author of ALL MY WILD MOTHERS, and curator of the Wild Women Writers’ SalonsThe New Eden illustrates how we are all integral and entangled, and each of us with the capacity for something better, as we develop a more cohesive understanding of the natural world, and our role within it. – Louise Kenward, editor of MOVING MOUNTAINSSeamlessly combines the intricacies of the personal with an overarching world view of a natural world that is all around us - a love letter to nature but not the kind seen at a distance, but that which exists in kissing distance. – Natasha Carthew, author of UNDERCURRENTProfound, joyful, quietly radical and moving, The New Eden challenges the colonial inheritance of what it means to belong to and care for the earth we are all born onto, and turns us in a new and hopeful direction. – Nicola Chester, author of ON GALLOWS DOWNThe New Eden is both wonderfully lyrical and precise, woven with poetic encounters and feminist narratives of resistance. It reminds us that ‘nature will thrive in the most unexpected places,’ and that the divide between what we perceive as wild and urban is porous, with nature achieving a harmonious balance that is also reflected in Niala’s stunning writing itself. – Alycia Pirmohamed, poet

JC Niala is an award-winning writer, environmental historian and anthropologist specialising in human-nature interactions. JC works as the Deputy Director and Head of Research, Teaching and Collections at the History of Science Museum, University of Oxford.

She has also been on BBC’s ‘The Conversation’ and ‘Thinking Allowed’, and she wrote and narrated the nature podcast series ‘The Root of the Matter’ with Wellcome Collection. She has appeared on panels at The Garden Museum, London, The Old Fire Station in Oxford and participated in the Edinburgh International Book Festival (where she interviewed Olivia Laing), as well as Chiswick Book Festival and Chelsea History Festival. JC lives in Oxford and Nairobi - and has lived in other cities including London and San Francisco.

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