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Why Our Minds Need the Wild

Losing Eden

A TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 
'Beautifully written, movingly told and meticulously researched ... a convincing plea for a wilder, richer world' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 
 
'By the time I'd read the first chapter, I'd resolved to take my son into the woods every afternoon over winter. By the time I'd read the sixth, I was wanting to break prisoners out of cells and onto the mossy moors. Losing Eden rigorously and convincingly tells of the value of the natural universe to our human hearts' Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun 
 
Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture and consciousness. For centuries, we have acted on an intuitive sense that we need communion with the wild to feel well. Now, in the moment of our great migration away from the rest of nature, more and more scientific evidence is emerging to confirm its place at the heart of our psychological wellbeing. So what happens, asks acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world-might we also be losing part of ourselves? 
 
Delicately observed and rigorously researched, Losing Eden is an enthralling journey through this new research, exploring how and why connecting with the living world can so drastically affect our health. Travelling from forest schools in East London to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault via primeval woodlands, Californian laboratories and ecotherapists' couches, Jones takes us to the cutting edge of human biology, neuroscience and psychology, and discovers new ways of understanding our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the earth. 
 
Urgent and uplifting, Losing Eden is a rallying cry for a wilder way of life - for finding asylum in the soil and joy in the trees - which might just help us to save the living planet, as well as ourselves.

Earnest, painstakingly-researched...A heartfelt love-letter to the outdoors

The benefits of experiencing nature may be far greater than is commonly appreciated ... A fascinating exploration of the new science of our connection to the natural world ... written in such lush, vivid prose that reading it, one can feel transported and restored.

Beautiful...science is proving just how deeply the cycles and rhythms of the natural world have been knitted into our every cell

Urgent, accessible, moving ... A beautifully written, research-heavy study about how nature offers us wellbeing

Losing Eden provides the evidence of how nature makes us calmer, healthier, happier, even kinder. Jones moves between close biological evidence -- how our parasympathetic nervous system is triggered when we're in nature, how bacteria found in soil increases stress resilience -- to large-scale environmental studies. The book is shot through with personal experience [...but is] not really a memoir; it's about all of us.

We've all heard it said that going for a dawdle in the park is good for us, but we probably assumed that such ideas are rooted in whimsy rather than empirical fact. Lucy Jones tracks down evidence for the benefits of rewilding our lives. People, research suggests, are not just happier when cities are greener but are also less violent. Losing Eden is just the right blend of the personal and the scientific as she also recounts how reconnecting with nature gave her some meaning after a period of coming undone.

Beautifully written, movingly told and meticulously researched, Losing Eden is an elegy to the healing power of nature, something we need more than ever in our anxiety-ridden world of ecological loss. Woven together with her own personal story of recovery, Lucy Jones lays out the overwhelming scientific evidence for nature as nurturer for body and soul with the clarity and candour that will move hearts and minds - a convincing plea for a wilder, richer world.

By the time I'd read the first chapter, I'd resolved to take my son into the woods every afternoon over winter. By the time I'd read the sixth, I was wanting to break prisoners out of cells and onto the mossy moors. Losing Eden rigorously and convincingly tells of the value of the natural universe to our human hearts. It's a simple message but Lucy Jones looks at it by using so many interesting and diverse ideas and places that it always stays vital. It is exciting, pertinent and elegantly written: I recommend it to anyone who makes decisions.

Fascinating ... the connection between mental health and the natural world turns out to be strong and deep - which is good news in that it offers those feeling soul-sick the possibility that falling in love with the world around them might be remarkably helpful. And those who fall in love with the world might protect it, a virtuous cycle that would make a real difference in the fight for a workable planet.

Bill McKibben, author of Falter; Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

An absorbing book...more than just a scientific treatise: Jones writes beautifully about nature and her own experiences of its healing powers

Lucy Jones is a writer and journalist based in Hampshire, England. She previously worked at NME and the Daily Telegraph, and her writing on culture, science and nature has been published in GQ, BBC Wildlife, The Sunday Times, the Guardian and the New Statesman. She is the author of Foxes Unearthed, which won the Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award 2015; Losing Eden, which was long-listed for the Wainwright Prize and named a Times and Telegraph book of the year; and Matrescence, ‘a thrilling examination of what it means to be a mother’ (Observer), which has been longlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.

'Beautifully written, movingly told and meticulously researched ... a convincing plea for a wilder, richer world' -- Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 
 
Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture and consciousness. For centuries, we have acted on an intuitive sense that we need communion with the wild to feel well. Now, in the moment of our great migration away from the rest of nature, more and more scientific evidence is emerging to confirm its place at the heart of our psychological wellbeing. So what happens, asks acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world--might we also be losing part of ourselves? 
 
Delicately observed and rigorously researched, Losing Eden is an enthralling journey through this new research, exploring how and why connecting with the living world can so drastically affect our health. Travelling from forest schools in East London, to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, via Poland's primeval woodlands, Californian laboratories and ecotherapists' couches, Jones takes us to the cutting edge of human biology, neuroscience and psychology, and discovers new ways of understanding our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the earth. Urgent and uplifting, Losing Eden is a rallying cry for a wilder way of life - for finding asylum in the soil and joy in the trees - which might just help us to save the living planet, as well as ourselves, from a future of ecological grief.

Lucy Jones

A thrilling examination of what it means to be a mother … Myths are smashed from page one … essential reading, roaring and ready to change conversations

I kept scribbling in the margins: 'We need to know this stuff!' ... wide-ranging in its scope, packed with statistics … comes as close as it’s possible to describing this indescribable moment in a woman’s life

Reading this, I felt a jolt of recognition ... I wish someone could have handed me Matrescence

This deeply personal book takes on “fairytale” ideas about being a mother … An exploration of motherhood – the contrast between myth and reality and between individual and social expectations ... Jones writes beautifully and with searing honesty about the life-changing physical and emotional impact of having a child

She is a gifted writer … A vital, hopeful book ... to read Matrescence is to emerge chastened and ready for change

Beautiful... boundary-pushing … Jones is a pioneer ... she skilfully elucidates the monumental shifts motherhood brings ... I found myself inwardly cheering

It is difficult to put into words the importance of this book. I felt it in my heart. I carried it with me, I think I always will. Jones has written the book we desperately needed

Matrescence took me on a journey of reminescence through my own pregnancies and early years of motherhood, eliciting wry recognition, surprise at new evidence and insight, and gratitude for a work that really sees what it is to mother

A beautiful contemplation of the extraordinary yet ordinary metamorphosis that adult humans undergo as they become mothers ... I was entranced ... Matrescence is a passionate and powerful maternal roar for change

Hypnotic, fascinating and long overdue. I am so glad it exists. A gift of a book and told beautifully.

As a first-time mother, Matrescence is probably the most reassuring book I've ever read... Buy it for every parent you know -- and then maybe buy a copy to send to your local MP as well

Matrescence is a wild and beautiful book, a blend of memoir, science, psychoanalytical thinking and nature writing with a poetic sensibility and a strong sense of political purpose

Matrescence is the book I've been waiting for. It feels like a gift. Radical, questioning and profound, it urges us to recognise and honour the many transformations of motherhood. With the deepest compassion for her fellow mothers, Lucy Jones shows us how contemporary society stacks the odds against them and calls us to imagine new ways of parenting which care for and support those at its heart

You'll marvel, wince and want to take to the streets after reading Lucy Jones' sweeping and courageous multidisciplinary survey of the motherlands. I wish we'd read it before we had our kid. (Mother) nature read in truth and awe

I was challenged, comforted, educated and nourished by this book ... It is the single most powerful, life-changing, heartachingly healing thing I have been given ... The kind of book we must ensure every one of us reads

A beautiful, intelligent book that is as tender and moving as it is demanding and urgent. There is something insightful and original in the way Lucy Jones seamlessly combines the analytical with the emotional, and it is an absolutely essential new addition to the literature of mothering and parenthood

This book should be a must-read for pretty much everyone. We don't talk about the hidden realities of the biological, social and psychological effects of matrescence nearly enough. Thank you, Lucy Jones, for changing that

Dazzling... Matrescence cements Jones' place as one of the most talented nonfiction writers we have. It really is *astonishingly* good

Matrescence is going to set mothers’ worlds alight. Finally, someone has properly expressed what the process of becoming a mother does to women: their sense of self and their brains. We all owe her a debt because it wasn’t just in our heads

Jones writes like a novelist, capturing wild swings of emotion, doubt, the adoration of a new baby, and (always) the tension between what she thinks is expected of her and the pressure of her own mixed-up feelings

Engaging and sensitive &hellip; Matrescence is an important work

A truly extraordinary book- radically eye-opening, beautiful and luminously written

A probing meditation &hellip; Seamlessly weaving personal recollections with broader social analysis &hellip; Elevated by inventive formal flourishes and searching reflection, Matrescence will resonate with mothers of all stripes

In this maddening journey of motherhood, I encourage everyone to let Matrescence be your soothing guide. From my early days of motherhood to a few years deep in the trenches, Lucy's words and wisdom continues to guide and comfort me. Matrescence is the sister I never had but always longed for as I try to figure out how to mother in this world. It's a fierce book, equally tender as it is sharp. It is my kind of bible that I will carry with me (and gift to others!) for a long time

A deep dive into the radical transformation of becoming a mother...An intimate, insightful memoir

Raw and real ... A fascinating and worthwhile read, this book for mothers is steeped in research that is both validating and illuminating ... Matrescece is a scientific and poetic ode to motherhood

A sensation … Wide-ranging in scope and hugely ambitious … For me, the book was a balm

On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood

A New Statesman and Daily Mail Book of the Year 
 
During pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood, women undergo a far-reaching physiological and psychological metamorphosis. There is no other time in a human's life course that entails such dramatic change-other than adolescence. And yet this life-altering transition has been sorely neglected by science, medicine and philosophy. Its seismic effects go largely unrepresented across literature and the arts. Speaking about motherhood as anything other than a pastel-hued dream is virtually taboo. 
 
In this ground-breaking investigation, acclaimed science journalist and author Lucy Jones brings to light the emerging concept of 'matrescence'. Drawing on new research across various fields - neuroscience and evolutionary biology; psychoanalysis and existential therapy; sociology, economics, ecology and cultural history - Jones shows how the changes in the maternal mind, brain and body are far more profound, wild and enduring than we have been led to believe. She reveals the dangerous consequences of our neglect of the maternal experience - today, one in ten women develop a mental illness in the first year of new motherhood; a third of mothers with more than one child suffer from postnatal depression - and she explores the patriarchal and capitalist institutions that have created the untenable situation mothers face today. 
 
Here is an urgent examination of motherhood and mental health, which seeks to unshackle mothers from the weight of unrealistic medical, cultural and economic expectations. It is an unignorable rallying cry to deepen our understanding of matrescence, and to make the experience of pregnancy, birth and child-raising better for future parents.

Lucy Jones

Praise for Matrescence

A thrilling examination of what it means to be a mother … Myths are smashed from page one … essential reading, roaring and ready to change conversations

I kept scribbling in the margins: 'We need to know this stuff!' ... wide-ranging in its scope, packed with statistics … comes as close as it’s possible to describing this indescribable moment in a woman’s life

Reading this, I felt a jolt of recognition ... I wish someone could have handed me Matrescence

A thrilling examination of what it means to be a mother … Myths are smashed from page one … essential reading, roaring and ready to change conversations

I kept scribbling in the margins: 'We need to know this stuff!' ... wide-ranging in its scope, packed with statistics … comes as close as it’s possible to describing this indescribable moment in a woman’s life

Reading this, I felt a jolt of recognition ... I wish someone could have handed me Matrescence

A thrilling examination of what it means to be a mother … Myths are smashed from page one … essential reading, roaring and ready to change conversations

I kept scribbling in the margins: 'We need to know this stuff!' ... wide-ranging in its scope, packed with statistics … comes as close as it’s possible to describing this indescribable moment in a woman’s life

Reading this, I felt a jolt of recognition ... I wish someone could have handed me Matrescence

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