Elegy For a River : Whiskers, Claws and Conservation’s Last, Wild Hope eAudiobook MP3

Brought to you by Penguin. Water voles are small, brownish, bewhiskered and charming.

Made famous by 'Ratty' in The Wind in the Willows, once they were a ubiquitous part of our waterways.

They were a totem of our rivers. Now, however, they are nearly gone. This is their story, and the story of a conservationist with a wild hope: that he could bring them back. Tom Moorhouse spent eleven years beside rivers, fens, canals, lakes and streams, researching British wildlife.

Quite a lot of it tried to bite him. He studied four main species - two native and endangered, two invasive and endangering - beginning with water voles.

He wanted to solve their conservation problems. He wanted to put things right. This book is about whether it worked, and what he learnt - and about what those lessons mean, not just for water voles but for all the world's wildlife.

It is a book for anyone who has watched ripples spread on lazy waters, and wondered what moves beneath. Or who has waited in quiet hope for a rustle in the reeds, the munch of a stem, or the patter of unseen paws. © Tom Moorhouse 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021