Description
Warm-blooded writing on cold-blooded creatures - this New Scientist Book of the Year uncovers the beautiful, mesmerising and complex world of fish.
About the Author
Helen Scales is a marine biologist, diver, surfer, broadcaster and writer who's spent hundreds of hours underwater watching fish. A familiar voice for the oceans, she's pondered the mysteries of the deep sea with Robin Ince and Brian Cox on BBC Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage and donated an imaginary tank of seahorses to The Museum of Curiosity. She's a regular writer for BBC Focus and BBC Wildlife magazines. Among her radio documentaries she's explored the dream of living underwater and followed the trail of endangered snails around the world and back again. Helen's book, Spirals in Time, is a Guardian bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Biology book prize, picked as a book of the year by The Economist, Nature, The Times and the Guardian and was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. @helenscales / helenscales.com
Reviews
Scales's genuine appreciation and awe for fish are contagious. She continually entices the reader by introducing exciting aspects of fish in each chapter. * Science *
A delightful book that provides a welcome invitation to enter the amazing world of fish. * New Scientist *
An engaging and informative bouillabaisse. * The Economist *
A sprawling, ambitious underwater journey studded with fascinating tidbits. * New York Times Book Review *
This aquarium of a book is an eloquent reminder of how remarkable [fish] are. * Natural History *
Enthralling and thought-provoking * Countryman *
Helen Scales invites us to dive below the waterline as she reveals the hidden but glorious lives of fish going about their rather fascinating business. * Coast *
Eye of the Shoal is a book brimming with wonders. Shimmering colours, otherworldly abilities, and compelling dramas flood every page, as the masterful Helen Scales brings us eye-to-eye with the world of fishes - creatures who are at once thrillingly strange and startlingly ubiquitous. Whether you snorkel or scuba, whether you meet fish in a tank or on TV, this book is new portal to see our blue planet with new eyes, one that will make you love our world and its creatures all the more. -- Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus
Eye of the Shoal is like a beautiful glass bottomed boat that reveals this mysterious realm with joyful passion and perfect clarity. You couldn't have a more knowledgable guide on board than Helen. -- Dallas Campbell, science broadcaster and author
Eye of the Shoal is an absorbing account of the least understood area of our planet. Helen brings the depths to life, not only with wondrous accounts from her extensive travels, but also by introducing us to some magnificently improbable characters (both human and piscine), and by astonishing us with mind-blowing facts on every page. -- James Harkin, QI's Head Elf and presenter on the award-winning podcast 'No Such Thing as a Fish'
This fantastic and timely book will change your perspective on your pet goldfish, a fishmonger's window display, a darting flash of silver glimpsed from a boat and the colourful world of a coral reef. A must-read for anyone interested in life on Earth. -- Helen Czerski, physicist, oceanographer and author of Storm in a Teacup
If you already love fish wherever they swim, you'll be astonished by so many new discoveries in these pages. If you don't love fish - you surely will.' -- Carl Safina, author of The View From Lazy Point, and Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
Book Information
ISBN 9781472936820
Author Helen Scales
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Bloomsbury Sigma
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 226g