Chris Fitch

Nature isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. But today the majority of the world’s population lives in some form of urban environment. And by 2050, two-thirds of humanity will live in towns and cities. Studies have shown that a daily walk in the woods can improve our health and happiness, that those who can observe a natural scene through a hospital window will recover faster. The sound of birds, the smell of tree oils, the presence of free-flowing water – these are all vital to our wellbeing. So as the human footprint of brick, concrete and metal expands, how do we protect our connection to the natural world? In Wild Cities, Chris Fitch leads us around the world in search of answers, visiting pioneering cities and meeting the people working at the forefront of this issue. From the tiny urban forests in Tokyo and the star-rich skies of Flagstaff, to the meandering river of Munich and lions prowling through gardens in Nairobi, this is a globe-spanning look at how to bring nature into the places we live – and how to create the wild cities of the future.

'AN ORIGINAL AND TIMELY ODYSSEY INTO OUR MYSTERIOUS UNDERWORLD . . . THRILLING PROOF THAT SCIENCE AND IMAGINATION SHARE THE GROUND BENEATH OUR FEET' Nicholas Crane, presenter of BBC2's Coast and Great British Journeys If you were to peel back the Earth's surface like an orange, then take a sly peek underneath, what extraordinary things would you see? Subterranea is where the world's remaining mysteries are yet to be found. For millennia, across nations and cultures, it has been a hotbed of fantastical stories. It's where humans have kept their most sacred treasures and their darkest secrets. It's where we have found evidence of our past and may, at some point, find an escape route for our uncertain future. But what would we find there today? From the underground cities of Cappadocia to smuggling tunnels on the US-Mexico border, caves full of tiny blind dragons and a seed vault located 1300km inside the Arctic circle, Subterranea demonstrates that the world below our feet is every bit as vivid and evocative as the world we see around us. Lavishly illustrated and replete with maps and photographs of little-explored locations, Subterranea is the unique, untold and utterly unforgettable story of our planet from the inside.