Jay Griffiths - one of the finest voices in nature writing in the UK
Pet-owners and animal-lovers instinctively know that animals heal. This book offers the evidence, drawing widely on scientific discoveries, history, and Indigenous knowledge.
We meet a pot-bellied pig who saved her owner's life, lions who guarded a girl from kidnappers, dolphins and whales rescuing people in danger, and dogs who can smell cancer and phone the Emergency Services.
Animal sounds, from insects to birdsong and the purring of cats, are directly medicinal and their presence can heal the pain of loneliness. Animals, including donkeys, can be natural therapists for the hurt psyche, alleviating trauma, fear and depression.
In this original, revelatory and exuberant book, Jay Griffiths explores how animals can have a role in every level of healing, from the individual to the collective, guiding us in how we might create societies that are healthier, fairer and kinder. Wolves may be teachers of ethics; monkeys and dogs can object to unfairness and bees take collective decisions. Animals are irresistible medicine for a healthy culture, animating the arts with spectacular vitality and verve, as poetry knows.
Open-hearted, playful and wise, How Animals Heal Us puts animals at the heart of a restorative vision of health.
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"Who else but Jay Griffiths could kaleidoscopically invert our view of animals to ask questions such as, “Did wolves have ethics before the dawn of humankind? Did Ravens teach us to play? Weaving humor, empathy, pathos, and so, so much more, Griffiths shows that animals are braided throughout the human psyche. An absolute fountain of fact, culture, and raw animal power!"
-Carl Safina, author of 'Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe'
“Humans can never get enough of animals. We know they are just like us, and also completely different. Now imagine meeting someone on a train who turns to you and starts telling you the most amazing stories about animals. Each one makes you go “wow!” And she can talk for hours—eloquently, magically. This is Jay Griffiths. Then she puts it all in a wonderful book, and you can return to these tales again and again. If animals can’t heal us, I don’t know what can.” —David Rothenberg, author of 'Secret Sounds of Ponds' and 'Nightingales in Berlin'
TICKETS
Tickets are a FIVER but limited. Please email Jules on jules@northbooks.co.uk or pop into the shop to reserve your place.
At North Books, 4 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye on Wednesday 9 July, 5.30-7pm.
THE AUTHOR
Jay Griffiths has written for Radiohead in their newspaper The Universal Sigh, and her work has featured in The Strokes filmabout the making of their work, and was quoted on the cover of KT Tunstall’s album Tiger Suit. She created a short film 'Almost Invisible Angels' where her text was voiced by Mark Rylance. She is one of the 100 international non-fiction writers selected for The Future Library, by artist Katie Paterson. She was commissioned to write about twilight for performance at the Purcell Rooms, and the text became her short book 'Twilight'.
Jay’s latest work, published by Penguin in June