The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
Still Water

Still Water

The Deep Life of the Pond

Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Still Water by John Lewis-Stempel, read by Leighton Pugh.

The Pond. Nothing in the countryside is more humble or more valuable. It’s the moorhen’s reedy home, the frog’s ancient breeding place, the kill zone of the beautiful dragonfly. More than a hundred rare and threatened fauna and flora depend on it.
Written in gorgeous prose, Still Water tells the seasonal story of the wild animals and plants that live in and around the pond, from the mayfly larvae in the mud to the patrolling bats in the night sky above. It reflects an era before the water was polluted with chemicals and the land built on for housing, a time when ponds shone everywhere like eyes in the land, sustaining life for all, from fish to carthorse.
Still Water is a loving biography of the pond, and an alarm call on behalf of this precious but overlooked habitat. Above all, John Lewis-Stempel takes us on a remarkable journey – deep, deep down into the nature of still water.

Reviews

  • A beautifully written celebration of one of the natural world's most fertile founts of biodiversity and artistic inspiration ... A call to arms.
    BEST NATURE BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2019, The Times

About the author

John Lewis-Stempel

Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more