Two Lights

An extraordinary account of searching for the wildness left in our world – spanning continents and geological eras, mountains and oceans, animals and birds, the skies and the stars beyond

'A beautifully written, wonderfully tender – and ultimately hopeful – journey through all that we stand to lose on this ever-more-challenged Earth' Sharon Blackie, author of If Women Rose Rooted

'Radical and earthy; superlative and sensible… bright, accomplished stuff' Patrick Laurie, author of Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape

'Deeply personal yet always outward looking, James Roberts delights in the world he discovers about him. Yet he also trembles, because he understands like winter light, that world is diminished… and diminishing… Two Lights reveals why all of us should be writers' Robert Minhinnick, poet and author of Diary of the Last Man

'A book about what it means to be fully alive in a time of endings: personal, planetary. Deeply moving and rich in surprising perspectives on wild places and our relationship to them' Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep

'Evocatively illustrated and elegantly written' Country Life

'A moving meditation on loss and fragility, tenderly tracing a love of wild creatures across landscapes of damaged yet deeply felt meaning. Startling and generous beauty, Two Lights finds light in the wondrous presence of others and the interconnectedness of all living things' Julian Hoffman, author of Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save Our Wild Places

'A beautiful, vivid work… [His] writing is lyrical, empathetic and keenly observed – there is joy as well as sorrow in his words and a reminder to savour the beauty that remains in this world' Western Daily Mail

' Two Lights is filled with awe-inspiring joy, but also death and decline brought from extermination, fire, flooding and pollution. Roberts is Wales’ own Henry David Thoreau, of whom he writes so eloquently. He is on a mission, and we can follow by reading his work and hopefully, by example' Buzzmag

'A meditative and hopeful account of walking through the wild, shifting landscapes of Wales, at all hours of the day and night, and often through times of personal darkness, in search of connection with the earth and its creatures. Roberts’ reflections on the healing power of watching nature change are sensitively expressed, with beautiful, often stark illustrations' The Tablet

James Roberts is a writer and artist who lives in the hills of the Welsh Border country. His essays and poems have been published widely and his artwork has featured in several exhibitions, books and theatre productions. He writes on Substack and shows work on Instagram as @nightriverwood.