Listen free for 30 days
-
All Creatures Small and Great
- How Insects Make the World
- Narrated by: Dr George McGavin, David Attenborough, Alison Steadman, Jane Horrocks
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science & Engineering, Science
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £16.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Otherlands
- A World in the Making
- By: Dr Thomas Halliday
- Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it be like to visit the ancient landscapes of the past? To experience the Jurassic or Cambrian worlds, to wander among these other lands, as creatures extinct for millions of years roam? In this mesmerizing debut, award-winning palaeontologist Thomas Halliday gives us a breath-taking up-close encounter with worlds that are normally unimaginably distant.
-
-
Looking through a glass darkly
- By Simmybear on 03-07-22
-
Silent Earth
- Averting the Insect Apocalypse
- By: Dave Goulson
- Narrated by: Dave Goulson
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Insects are essential for life as we know it. As they become more scarce, our world will slowly grind to a halt; we simply cannot function without them. Drawing on the latest groundbreaking research and a lifetime's study, Dave Goulson reveals the shocking decline of insect populations that has taken place in recent decades, with potentially catastrophic consequences. He passionately argues that we must all learn to love, respect and care for our six-legged friends.
-
-
We can’t say we haven’t been warned
- By Rob Mellowship on 11-08-21
-
Living Planet
- The Web of Life on Earth
- By: David Attenborough
- Narrated by: David Attenborough
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nowhere on our planet is devoid of life. Plants and animals thrive or survive within every extreme of climate and habitat that it offers. Single species, and often whole communities, adapt to make the most of ice cap and tundra, forest and plain, desert, ocean and volcano. These adaptations can be truly extraordinary. In Living Planet, David Attenborough’s searching eye, unfailing curiosity and infectious enthusiasm explain and illuminate the intricate lives of the these colonies.
-
-
Extraordinary audiobook
- By Thomas Chen on 21-10-21
-
Life Between the Tides
- In Search of Rockpools and Other Adventures Along the Shore
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Sea Is Not Made of Water, Adam Nicolson explores the natural wonders of the intertidal and our long human relationship with it. The physics of the seas, the biology of anemone and limpet, the long history of the Earth, and the stories we tell of those who have lived here: all interconnect in this zone where the philosopher, scientist and poet can meet and find meaning.
-
Endless Forms
- The Secret World of Wasps
- By: Seirian Sumner
- Narrated by: Seirian Sumner
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where bees and ants have long been the darlings of the insect world, wasps are much older, cleverer and more diverse. They are the bee’s evolutionary ancestors—flying 100 million years earlier—and today, they are just as essential for the survival of our environment. A bee, ecologist Professor Seirian Sumner argues, is just a wasp that has forgotten how to hunt. For fans of Entangled Life, Other Minds and The Gospel of Eels, this is a book to upturn your expectations about one overlooked animal and the wider architecture of our natural world.
-
The Future of Dinosaurs
- What We Don't Know, What We Can, and What We'll Never Know
- By: David Hone
- Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since we first started discovering dinosaurs in the early 1800s, our obsession for uncovering everything about these creatures has been insatiable. Each generation has made huge strides in trying to better our understanding of these animals, and in the past 20 years, we have made more discoveries than in the previous 200. There have been extraordinary advances in palaeontological methods, and ever more dinosaur fossils promise a landslide of new data and huge leaps forward in our understanding of these incredible animals.
-
-
Just the book I was looking for
- By Just this guy, you know? on 25-04-22
-
Otherlands
- A World in the Making
- By: Dr Thomas Halliday
- Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it be like to visit the ancient landscapes of the past? To experience the Jurassic or Cambrian worlds, to wander among these other lands, as creatures extinct for millions of years roam? In this mesmerizing debut, award-winning palaeontologist Thomas Halliday gives us a breath-taking up-close encounter with worlds that are normally unimaginably distant.
-
-
Looking through a glass darkly
- By Simmybear on 03-07-22
-
Silent Earth
- Averting the Insect Apocalypse
- By: Dave Goulson
- Narrated by: Dave Goulson
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Insects are essential for life as we know it. As they become more scarce, our world will slowly grind to a halt; we simply cannot function without them. Drawing on the latest groundbreaking research and a lifetime's study, Dave Goulson reveals the shocking decline of insect populations that has taken place in recent decades, with potentially catastrophic consequences. He passionately argues that we must all learn to love, respect and care for our six-legged friends.
-
-
We can’t say we haven’t been warned
- By Rob Mellowship on 11-08-21
-
Living Planet
- The Web of Life on Earth
- By: David Attenborough
- Narrated by: David Attenborough
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nowhere on our planet is devoid of life. Plants and animals thrive or survive within every extreme of climate and habitat that it offers. Single species, and often whole communities, adapt to make the most of ice cap and tundra, forest and plain, desert, ocean and volcano. These adaptations can be truly extraordinary. In Living Planet, David Attenborough’s searching eye, unfailing curiosity and infectious enthusiasm explain and illuminate the intricate lives of the these colonies.
-
-
Extraordinary audiobook
- By Thomas Chen on 21-10-21
-
Life Between the Tides
- In Search of Rockpools and Other Adventures Along the Shore
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Sea Is Not Made of Water, Adam Nicolson explores the natural wonders of the intertidal and our long human relationship with it. The physics of the seas, the biology of anemone and limpet, the long history of the Earth, and the stories we tell of those who have lived here: all interconnect in this zone where the philosopher, scientist and poet can meet and find meaning.
-
Endless Forms
- The Secret World of Wasps
- By: Seirian Sumner
- Narrated by: Seirian Sumner
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where bees and ants have long been the darlings of the insect world, wasps are much older, cleverer and more diverse. They are the bee’s evolutionary ancestors—flying 100 million years earlier—and today, they are just as essential for the survival of our environment. A bee, ecologist Professor Seirian Sumner argues, is just a wasp that has forgotten how to hunt. For fans of Entangled Life, Other Minds and The Gospel of Eels, this is a book to upturn your expectations about one overlooked animal and the wider architecture of our natural world.
-
The Future of Dinosaurs
- What We Don't Know, What We Can, and What We'll Never Know
- By: David Hone
- Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since we first started discovering dinosaurs in the early 1800s, our obsession for uncovering everything about these creatures has been insatiable. Each generation has made huge strides in trying to better our understanding of these animals, and in the past 20 years, we have made more discoveries than in the previous 200. There have been extraordinary advances in palaeontological methods, and ever more dinosaur fossils promise a landslide of new data and huge leaps forward in our understanding of these incredible animals.
-
-
Just the book I was looking for
- By Just this guy, you know? on 25-04-22
-
A Complete Guide to British Birds
- And Their Calls and Songs
- By: Brett Westwood, Stephen Moss
- Narrated by: Stephen Moss, Brett Westwood
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Presenter Brett Westwood joins forces with BAFTA award-winning producer and naturalist Stephen Moss for six delightful and informative series, introducing us to some of Britain's most popular and best-loved birds. Together with wildlife sound recordist Chris Moss, they tour the UK, tracking down the rich variety of species that make their home there - from garden and woodland birds to ones that live on water, by the coast, on farms and in the mountains and moors.
-
-
Entertaining and very informative
- By Skybluejon on 29-12-21
-
Forget Me Not
- Finding the Forgotten Species of Climate-Change Britain
- By: Sophie Pavelle
- Narrated by: Sophie Pavelle
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join Sophie Pavelle on a low-carbon journey around Britain in search of ten animals and habitats threatened by climate change in the 21st century. Like many of her generation, Sophie Pavelle is determined to demand action on climate change. In her hilarious and thought-provoking first audiobook, she describes the trips she took to see ten rare native species: species that could disappear by 2050 and be forgotten by the end of the century if their habitats continue to decline.
-
-
Bloody brilliant
- By Jim Dowding on 11-08-22
-
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals
- A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of our mammal forebears with stories of the scientists whose fieldwork and discoveries underlie our knowledge, both of iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are aware of. For what we see today is but a very limited range of the mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and groundbreaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their—and our—story.
-
-
Not as accessible as his first book
- By Christopher on 19-06-22
-
Buried
- An Alternative History of the First Millennium in Britain
- By: Alice Roberts
- Narrated by: Alice Roberts
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Funerary rituals show us what people thought about mortality; how they felt about loss; what they believed came next. From Roman cremations and graveside feasts, to deviant burials with heads rearranged, from richly furnished Anglo Saxon graves to the first Christian burial grounds in Wales, Buried provides an alternative history of the first millennium in Britain.
-
-
An excellent walk through history.
- By Mr Few on 03-08-22
-
Where the Wildflowers Grow
- My Botanical Journey Through Britain and Ireland
- By: Leif Bersweden
- Narrated by: Leif Bersweden
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leif Bersweden has always been fascinated by wild plants. From a young age, his afternoons were spent hunting for and cataloguing the plants in his local area. But it is a landscape that is fast disappearing. Climate change, habitat destruction and declining pollinator populations mean that the future for plant life looks bleaker than ever before. Many of us are also unable to identify, or even notice, the plants that grow around us. Now a botanist, Leif decides to go on a mission, to explore the plants that Britain and Ireland have to offer.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Liam on 02-08-22
-
Extraordinary Insects
- Weird. Wonderful. Indispensable. The ones who run our world.
- By: Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Lucy Moffatt - translator
- Narrated by: Kristin Milward
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A journey into the weird, wonderful and truly astonishing lives of the small but mighty creatures who keep the world turning. Out of sight, underfoot, unseen beyond fleeting scuttles or darting flights, insects occupy a hidden world, yet are essential to sustaining life on earth. Insects influence our ecosystem like a ripple effect on water. They arrived when life first moved to dry land, they preceded – and survived – the dinosaurs, they outnumber the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches, and they will be here long after us.
-
-
Not for enthusiasts or biologists
- By Sean on 22-09-20
-
An Immense World
- How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Ed Yong
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An Immense World will take us on an insider's tour of the natural world by describing the biology, physics and chemistry animals use to perceive it. We may lack some of their senses, but our own super-sense lies in our ability to understand theirs. And in the face of the largest extinction event since the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, our only hope of saving other species is bound up with our ability to see what they see, and feel what they feel.
-
-
Eye opening (or is it ear/taste/touch….)
- By Anonymous User on 10-08-22
-
Birds, Beasts, and Bedlam
- Turning My Farm into an Ark for Lost Species
- By: Derek Gow
- Narrated by: Calum Beaton
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds, Beasts and Bedlam recounts the adventures of farmer-turned-rewilder Derek Gow, who is saving Britain’s much-loved but dangerously threatened species, from the water vole to beaver, wildcat to white stork, and tree frog to glow worm. Derek tells us all about the realities of rewilding: how he reared delicate roe deer and a sofa-loving wild boar piglet, moved a raging bison bull across the country, got bitten by a Scottish wildcat, returned honking skeins of graylag geese to the land and water that was once theirs, and restored the white stork to the Knepp Estate.
-
-
Simply excellent
- By Sharon Jervis on 25-07-22
-
Cornerstones
- Wild Forces That Can Change Our World
- By: Benedict Macdonald
- Narrated by: Joshua Picton
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our precious archipelago is ravaged by climate change, bereft of natural ecosystems and lies at the mercy of global warming, flooding, drought and catastrophic biodiversity loss. But could restoring species that once helped protect our islands help turn this crisis around? From familiar yet imperilled honeybees and ancient oak woods to returning natives like beavers and boars, Britain’s cornerstone species may hold the key to recovering our biodiversity on land and in our seas.
-
Wild City
- Encounters with Urban Wildlife
- By: Florence Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Florence Wilkinson, Shazia Nicholls
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As more and more of our planet is urbanised, we humans still feel that primal pull to connect with our wilder roots. This gorgeously lyrical book invites us to celebrate the natural world, while also offering a clear-eyed glimpse into the challenges faced by urban plants and animals as cities grow and sprawl. Wild City proposes a compelling manifesto for city wildlife, suggesting how we might take action to protect the often-overlooked residents who live alongside us.
-
The Brilliant Abyss
- True Tales of Exploring the Deep Sea, Discovering Hidden Life and Selling the Seabed
- By: Helen Scales
- Narrated by: Helen Scales
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Brilliant Abyss tells the story of our relationship with the deep sea – how we imagine, explore and exploit it. It captures the golden age of discovery we are currently in and looks back at the history of how we got here, while also looking forward to the unfolding new environmental disasters that are taking place miles beneath the waves, far beyond the public gaze.
-
-
An incredible listen
- By Daniel on 30-09-21
-
Regenesis
- Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet
- By: George Monbiot
- Narrated by: George Monbiot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People talk a lot about the problems with intensive farming. But the problem isn't the adjective. It's the noun. Around the world, farming has been wiping out vast habitats, depleting freshwater, polluting oceans, and accelerating global heating, while leaving millions undernourished and unfed. Increasingly, there are signs that the system itself is beginning to flicker. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, there is another way.
-
-
Fascinating, uplifting
- By Erich Graf on 29-05-22
Summary
Entomologist and broadcaster Dr George McGavin presents All Creatures Great and Small: How Insects Make the World, an Original Audiobook Production by W F Howes.
If you are at all interested in life on our planet, then you need to know about insects. They are the most successful group of animals ever to have lived on Earth. Making up three quarters of all animal species, insects conquered the planet long ago. They were among the very first animals to appear on land and were the first to take to the air. Their total biomass is at least 10 times that of all humans and our livestock combined.
This world is not ours alone. We are newcomers on a planet made and maintained by insects.
If we are going to appreciate the massive part that insects play in the ecology of our planet we need to understand where they came from and how they became so successful. The survival of insects is key to our own survival.
Join Dr George McGavin on an exciting audio journey to help us understand the fascinating world of insects. Along the way we are transported from bee-filled meadows to the forest floor, following Dr McGavin as he meets national treasures Sir David Attenborough, Alison Steadman and Jane Horrocks and a range of experts such as Professors Stephen Simpson, Helen Roy, Phil Stevenson and Erica McAlister to understand more about their passion for these incredible creatures.
All Creatures Small and Great is an important and timely work to engage people with wildlife, when the world is rapidly losing its biodiversity.
Features bonus audio content including full-length interviews and immersive binaural nature sounds for focus and relaxation.
Dr George McGavin is a regular TV and radio presenter for the BBC and others. He is an Honorary Research Associate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and a Research Associate of The Department of Zoology of Oxford University as well as a Senior Principal Research Fellow of Imperial College. George’s work has taken him from the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea to the caves of Thailand and from the jungles of Belize to the savannas of Tanzania. Dr George McGavin has several insect species named in his honour and hopes they survive him.
Guest contributors include:
Sir David Attenborough – Broadcaster and Natural Historian
Alison Steadman – Actress and Ambassador for the London Wildlife Trust
Dr Erica McAlister – Senior Curator, Natural History Museum Professor
Philip C. Stevenson – Kew Gardens Professor
Professor Stephen Simpson – Biologist and Biomedical Scientist
Professor Helen Roy – President of the Royal Entomological Society
Professor Karim Vahed – Entomologist specialising in insect behaviour
Anne Riley – Of the Wharfedale Naturalists' Society
Jane Horrocks – Actress and co-host of the podcast Queen Bees
Critic reviews
“George McGavin is a rarity.” (Sir David Attenborough)
"This audiobook tells the tales of the little things that rule our world. How they came to be here, what they do for us and their uncertain future in a world that doesn’t care about them nearly enough. Hopefully George’s wise words can redress that balance, before it’s too late.” (Steve Backshall MBE, explorer, naturist and TV presenter)
"In this remarkable audiobook George McGavin combines his comprehensive understanding of the biology of insects with his own personal tales and those of experts to explain the extraordinary success of the insects, and to show their fundamental importance to life on earth - past, present and future. This audiobook is a paean to insects and a salutary story for our times. McGavin speaks with a passion that is founded in deep expertise of these small creatures but with an eye to the big picture." (Professor Stephen Simpson)
What listeners say about All Creatures Small and Great
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mabulza Ritchie
- 25-04-22
superb format
loved this new format, audio book, pod cast mix. This is one of those books you want to make others listen to. Would love to hear more in this style from George McGavin.
Already listened twice but it will be one that I return to again and again.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert Hardie
- 16-05-22
Fascinating and informative
This is a well read and totally absorbing account of insects and what they have done for us. It is full off amazing statistics and anecdotes that will open your eyes to the whole world of insects and how we, and every living thing, are connected to them. The format works well, with interviews breaking up the chapters, making it easy to listen to and follow along.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr. Joseph L. W. Bartram
- 20-05-22
The love of insects is infectious
George narrates brilliantly and conveys incredible passion for his subject matter, if you don't come out a little more intrigued by the smaller inhabitants of this world then I worry for you! The interviews are also fantastic and well worth listening to in full at the end, including a wonderfully touching interview with the great David Attenborough.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- P.M.Humphrey
- 28-05-22
Learn to appreciate insects if you can't love them
Helps understand why ecosystems must be considered in every thing we do and why we should protect them.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 29-03-22
Yorkshire
Yorkshire does have a coastline Dr George.
Quite a long one.
Surely you know that.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 15-08-22
EN UTTERLY EXCELLENT BOOK ON INSECTS
I absolutely love this book! All contents based on facts! Narrator couldn't be better.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 31-07-22
Inspirational
Be inspired to take a closer look at the smaller things around you and be amazed at their life stories.