At the Water's Edge: 'a quiet but rousing call to action for anyone who loves the natural world'

At the Water's Edge by John Lister-Kaye (Canongate, £17.99)

Dedicated conservationist Lister-Kaye has spent much of his life in solitary contemplation of his environment. For the past three decades, he has regularly walked from his Scottish home around a loch and back through a wood. This is his account of his observations on that changing environment, written partly as a diary and partly as an examination of our attitude towards our surroundings. His spare but lyrical prose is engaging yet never patronising or didactic in the way that literature on conservation and the environment can be. It's also full of asides, such as his observation that jackets which rustle are worn by people more interested in the human than the wild, or his frustration at the profligacy of youth while lecturing teenage biology students, or tips for the best way to roast a woodcock. This is a quiet but rousing call to action for anyone who loves the natural world and wants to help preserve it.

Extract

"If we want to experience wildness for ourselves the norm is now to do so in a 'safe' way, by going to a nature reserve where a ranger will lead you by the hand, or signboards and leaflets remove all the excitement and discovery… Overhanging branches are removed in case they scratch your face, stout bridges waft you over streams to keep your feet dry; steps and handrails are installed, lest you slip or fall. To entice and please our urban and suburban majority we are sanitising, taming and domesticating for popular consumption the last of our most precious wild places and frequently trivialising the experience of the wildlife they sustain."

The Glory of the Sultans by Yves Porter (Flammarion, £50)

The period from the 12th to the 19th century was one in which the influences of Muslim architecture blended with those of Turkey and Persia in India. The Mughul Dynasty of 1526-1857 was admired for its architecture, notably the Shalimar gardens in Lahore and the Taj Mahal at Agra. Porter is a professor of Iranian studies who specialises in Muslim art, and this is an erudite and appealing examination of the rich and varied architecture of this period. Chapters deal with historical periods rather than geographical regions, and are illustrated with glorious colour photographs. This is much more than the coffee-table book it appears, but rather a serious and important celebration of Muslim architecture in India.

Extract

"For the sultanate of Delhi the period between the ascension of the Sayyid dynasty and the seizure of power by the Mughal Akbar was one of turbulence and disorder… On the architectural plane, the lion's share of the remains that have survived come from the funerary monuments scattered about the capital. Their function is of course itself an unconscious illustration of the transient nature of the ascendancy various rulers gained at the head of an empire that now lay in tatters."