Europe: a natural history

BY TIM FLANNERY, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, £25

In this comprehensive and enjoyable book, Tim Flannery transports the reader, in a time machine, to Europe in its earliest days, before the land took the shape we know today. After revelling in the fantastic beasts and plants that lived in these prehistoric climates, as well as the eccentric naturalists who studied them, our guide zooms to the appearance of the first European humans, how we’ve changed nature today and our attempts at rewilding. The finale is a glance into a future where megafauna such as straight-tusked elephant and rhino roam, visited by tourists from Asia and Africa, where the largest animals are extinct. Liz Kalaugher Science writer