Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape

From Jay Griffiths, the author of the award-winning Wild comes a passionate polemic defence of childhood

'Her work isn't just good -- it's necessary' Philip Pullman

In Kith, Jay Griffiths seeks to discover why we deny our children the freedoms of space, time and the natural world.

Visiting communities as far apart as West Papua and the Arctic, as well as the UK, and delving into history, philosophy, language and literature, she explores how children's affinity for nature is an essential and universal element of childhood.

It is a journey deep into the heart of what it means to be a child, and it is central to all our experiences, young and old.

'An impassioned, visionary plea to restore to our children the spirit of adventure, freedom and closeness to nature that is their birthright. We must hear it and act on it before it is too late' Iain McGilchrist

'Jay Griffiths writes with such richness and mischief about the one thing that could truly save the world: its children' KT Tunstall

Review: Griffiths' understanding of how it feels to be a child is extraordinary, and her writing is as vivid as poetry * Mail on Sunday *

I didn't just read this book; I revelled in it. Playful and polemical, emotional and imaginative. As vital as play itself * Independent *

A subterranean book. We excavate it to refind the secrets of childhood, our own, and many other childhoods in times and places far from ours -- John Berger

Kith could have been written by no-one but Jay Griffiths. It is ablaze with her love of the physical world and her passionate moral sense that goodness and a true relation with nature are intimately connected. She has the same visionary understanding of childhood that we find in Blake and Wordsworth, and John Clare would have read her with delight. Her work isn't just good -- it's necessary -- Philip Pullman