From Axolotl to Zebrafish, meet a world of barely imagined beings: real creatures that are often stranger and more astonishing than anything dreamt in the pages of a medieval bestiary. Ranging from the depths of the ocean to the most arid corners of the earth, Caspar Henderson captures the beauty and bizarreness of the many living forms we thought we knew and some we could never have contemplated, and invites us to better imagine the world around us. An extraordinary, vivid combination of natural history, spiritual primer and philosophical meditation, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is a mind-expanding, wonder-inducing read.
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Review
"A spellbinding book... [Henderson] fuses zoology, literature, mythology, history, palaeontology, anecdote and art through 27 brilliantly executed essays... Extraordinary." - Guardian
"Henderson challenges our perception of the natural world, and reminds us of the huge effect we have on the environment... Enlightening and very beautifully produced." --Financial Times
"All of Henderson s essays are written in the same exuberantly learned vein. This book, then, is much more than a basic bestiary. Physically, it is beautiful, with gorgeously engraved frontispieces, ¬generous margins speckled with asides in rich red ink, and paper so creamy that it almost smells of vanilla. Politically, it is decidedly green, but as is the fashion with environmental ¬writing, Henderson prefers lyricism to anguished howling. He finds joy in ¬animals themselves ... On the evidence of this book, it s hard not to believe that bestiaries of our near future will have to be savagely expurgated, or that these beasts will be, to our children, no more than fables." --Sunday Times
"He can demonstrate not only the staggering fecundity of evolution but the fragility of the eco-system that supports such diversity... [His] extended paean to nature's creativity leaves us with a sense of unfinished business rather than inevitable doom"- Independent
"It takes a writer of Henderson's talent to fascinate us with tales of sponges and protozoa... This engrossing, fact-filled yet poetic book is an excellent attempt to understand the nature of the gulf between us and the species with which we share this planet... Magnificent." --Literary Review
"Henderson challenges our perception of the natural world, and reminds us of the huge effect we have on the environment... Enlightening and very beautifully produced." --Financial Times
"All of Henderson s essays are written in the same exuberantly learned vein. This book, then, is much more than a basic bestiary. Physically, it is beautiful, with gorgeously engraved frontispieces, ¬generous margins speckled with asides in rich red ink, and paper so creamy that it almost smells of vanilla. Politically, it is decidedly green, but as is the fashion with environmental ¬writing, Henderson prefers lyricism to anguished howling. He finds joy in ¬animals themselves ... On the evidence of this book, it s hard not to believe that bestiaries of our near future will have to be savagely expurgated, or that these beasts will be, to our children, no more than fables." --Sunday Times
"He can demonstrate not only the staggering fecundity of evolution but the fragility of the eco-system that supports such diversity... [His] extended paean to nature's creativity leaves us with a sense of unfinished business rather than inevitable doom"- Independent
"It takes a writer of Henderson's talent to fascinate us with tales of sponges and protozoa... This engrossing, fact-filled yet poetic book is an excellent attempt to understand the nature of the gulf between us and the species with which we share this planet... Magnificent." --Literary Review
About the Author
Caspar Henderson has been a journalist and editor with various publications and broadcasters, including BBC Radio 4, the Financial Times, the Independent, Nature, New Scientist and openDemocracy ( where he was senior editor for three years). He is a past recipient of an IUCN-Reuters award for best environmental reporting in Western Europe. He co-authored Our Fragile Earth (2005, New Internationalist) and was the commissioning editor for Debating Globalization (2005, Polity).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By John Sims
Format:Hardcover
An enchanting book, wise informative and entertaining. It lures us out of the parochialism of our species into a world of deep time populated by our almost unimaginable ancestors. Henderson leads us into a universe of wonders. Seen in the perspective of hundreds of millions of years, could we be just a little less important than we though we were? And the book is beautifully produced. My only grouse is that the name of the fantastic illustrator, Golbanou Moghaddas, does not appear on the title page.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's appropriate, in the case of Henderson's modern bestiary, that the book is both a thing of beauty and a challenge to our perception of beauty in nature. In an A to Z of some of the weird and wonderful creatures thrown up by the blind processes of evolution, Henderson has managed to turn his own curiosity about nature into a thought-provoking, complex expression of us and the rest of the earth. The breadth of research beggars belief and the use of marginalia to squeeze every ounce of information into the book is a playful and fascinating way of illuminating some of the ideas in the chapters. This is a book of delights to remind us why we should care about our increasingly imperilled planet and its bizarre and beautiful forces of transformation.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've only dipped into the text so far, and found it to be delightful - witty and profound by turns; my only very slight criticism is that I feel it could do with a little more darkness amid the generally enchanting descriptions of the animals - Henderson doesn't altogether ignore the fact that animals kill and eat, but it's a touch underplayed in comparison with the lighter aspects of morphology and behaviour. However, as an object, this book really is a thing of beauty, with the text and illustrations wonderfully integrated. It's an intellectual and aesthetic joy.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By ganga
Format:Hardcover
Caspar Henderson's research is simply extraordinary, such that I found myself Googling creatures just to make sure he wasn't having us on! Indeed, the Googling increased in frequency the more I read, and began to include expert's names. Henderson's erudition is not limited to science as he peppers the text with references to literature, poetry and even popular music. Personally, I found his predilection for quoting witch-accuser (woman killer) Thomas Browne to be annoying, but as this is personal bias, he'll not lose a star.
The book is beautifully designed and illustrated. The latter only adding to the mystery of the creatures described, which I am sure would only have been demeaned by full-colour images. It is really sad that Granta, of whom I would have thought better, decided to provide a faux-hardback binding for this £25 book. Glued spines and card covers are not the way to stem the tide of virtual books.
Rants aside, this is a brilliant work - wholly recommended!!!
The book is beautifully designed and illustrated. The latter only adding to the mystery of the creatures described, which I am sure would only have been demeaned by full-colour images. It is really sad that Granta, of whom I would have thought better, decided to provide a faux-hardback binding for this £25 book. Glued spines and card covers are not the way to stem the tide of virtual books.
Rants aside, this is a brilliant work - wholly recommended!!!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By enthusiast
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
My grandson aged four is mad keen on the Octonauts - so was delighted to see that this book included octopus, puffer fish and whale amongst many others. The conceit is such a clever one, leading from particular creatures in all directions; it is laid out beautifully and is a joy to read whether section by section or over a longer stretch. It has that nice old-fashioned sense of being a book to handle and treasure over the years. Friederike Huber, the text designer, deserves great credit too, as does Michael Salu, the designer. Certainly the most interesting and best produced book I have read this year. And at £11.25 for over 400 pages it must be a bargain too! The website [...].com will give you a good idea of the book and contains additional material to add to the package.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By R. Hardy
Format:Hardcover
As if there were not already a extraordinary range of strange animals in the world, the bestiaries of the medieval times included such creatures as barnacle geese growing on trees. In 1967, Jorge Luis Borges brought out _The Book of Imaginary Beings_, which chronicled animals imagined in _Gilgamesh_ and in the works of Kafka. When Caspar Henderson was looking through Borges's book, he realized that there are many real animals that are stranger than fictional ones. He isn't a biologist; he is a journalist and editor, but he realized he wanted to go exploring to find out more about the very strange creatures that evolution has come up with. He has brought out _The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary_ (Granta; to be published in America by the University of Chicago Press in April). This is a handsome book, with lots of whimsical illustrations; it is an abecedarium, with 27 chapters (the letter X which is often shortchanged in such books, here gets an extra chapter) from axolotl to zebra fish. Each chapter starts with an illuminated letter, incorporating something within the chapter. It is full of surprises, and Henderson's enthusiasm and wonder are infectious.
Let me describe just the first chapter on the axolotl, whose name we Americans who are old enough first encountered as one of Harvey Kurtzman's non sequitur running gags in _Mad Magazine_. The weird word refers to a weird little animal, a salamander with pink skin, arms with fingers and legs with toes, gills that branch out from its neck, and an oversized spheroid head with a fixed, placid smile. Henderson writes, "Axolotls have this advantage over many other species in a human-dominated world: many people find them cute." They are popular for the home aquarium trade.... Read more ›
Let me describe just the first chapter on the axolotl, whose name we Americans who are old enough first encountered as one of Harvey Kurtzman's non sequitur running gags in _Mad Magazine_. The weird word refers to a weird little animal, a salamander with pink skin, arms with fingers and legs with toes, gills that branch out from its neck, and an oversized spheroid head with a fixed, placid smile. Henderson writes, "Axolotls have this advantage over many other species in a human-dominated world: many people find them cute." They are popular for the home aquarium trade.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Such a good read
This book is exactly as i thought it would be- so interested to read and the layout was engaging which helps. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Samantha
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing.
An astonishing book, beautifully produced, a rivetting read. I would have liked a few more and bigger illustrations but the relatively small format prevents that. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Queen Mab
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Book
Bought as a present for my grandson (9yrs old) who is obsessed with weird and wonderful animals. I was initially concerned that the style would be too 'grown up' for him but he... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Glob
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Interesting Ramble
This is a well produced book with nice monochrome line images and a neat way of indexing 'footnotes' that actually appear alongside the text. Read more
Published 3 months ago by R. Ding
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful
A wonderful beautifully written book with fascinating details about some amazing creatures - and what they tell us about our planet, ourselves and the fragile relationship between... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Phil Almond
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating!!
Interesting, educative, enjoyable and approachable book about the life.
I also like the edition with very beautiful illustrations.
Highly recommended.
I also like the edition with very beautiful illustrations.
Highly recommended.
Published 4 months ago by Javi
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very entertaining and full of interesting facts, views and insights
Each chapter is self contained. A facinating narrative is then developed and sets off in an unexpected direction from the staring point.
Well worth a read. Read more
Well worth a read. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. A. R. Monbiot
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Book of Barely Imagined Beings
Not quite what I expected. The book has been produced in the way of a Victorian tome. The subject matter is interesting enough, but there is a sad lack of any photographs, coloured... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Crewe 5A
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed with the quality
I bought this as a present but was really disappointed with the poor quality paper. As to the content I haven't read it because it was a gift.
Published 5 months ago by Heather Ferrier
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh what a dissapointment!
Having read about this book in the Times Culture section where they displayed a full colour photo of the strange and yet beautiful Axolotl, perhaps you can imagine how dissapointed... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Usuallyeasilypleased
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