Night Life by John Lewis-Stempel

In a follow-up to the ‘spellbinding’ Nightwalking, John Lewis-Stempel ventures out into Britain’s wildest landscapes in search of a sky full of stars.

At night the senses become reordered.
Hearing, touch, smell are privileged over vision. It is after dark that we humans become more sensitive to nature, more ‘animal’. But the lights of the modern world are obliterating any meaningful connection to the night. We have lost touch with its wonders as well as its terrors.

In this enchanting follow-up to Nightwalking, John Lewis-Stempel once again ventures out into the night to discover the natural world after dark, its rarely seen spectacles and curiosities. There are hares boxing under stars, night jars hunting moths in the summer wood, wintry moons with halos, rock-pool creatures glowing neon under UV light, barley fields shimmering in moonshine …

In Night Life, Lewis-Stempel wanders his familiar farmland, and goes further afield too, exploring the Lake District, the Welsh coast, London’s Thames. Everywhere, he shows us why the night is precious, and what it is to be human in the dark.

About the Author: John Lewis-Stempel is a farmer and ‘Britain’s finest living nature writer’ (The Times). His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers Woodston, The Running Hare and The Wood. He is the only person to have won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing twice, with Meadowland and Where Poppies Blow. In 2016 he was named Magazine Columnist of the Year for his column in Country Life. He farms cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. Traditionally.

06 Nov 2025
 

Night Life: Walking Britain’s wild landscapes after dark by John Lewis-Stempel ISBN 9781529938159