To Have or To Hold

A thrilling exploration of nature’s symbiotic relationships, some comforting and familiar, others wildly alien, by the award-winning author of Forget Me Not.

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A thrilling exploration of nature’s symbiotic relationships, some comforting and familiar, others wildly alien, by the award-winning author of Forget Me Not.

What can nature teach us about living together? Investigating eight symbiotic relationships trying to survive the climate and biodiversity crises, Sophie Pavelle explains why it has never been more vital for us to understand symbiosis. Symbiotic relationships regulate ecosystems, strengthen resilience and bind pivotal connections.

Species living together in symbiosis is no accident – these dynamics evolved. Species form and sever alliances everywhere, from deep within temperate rainforests to the open ocean, quiet tidal pools or chalk grasslands, and nature thrives on relationships as glamorous as they are grotesque and as bizarre as they are engrossing.

In To Have or To Hold, Sophie relishes the interconnectedness between species and celebrates the relationships that underpin natural environments. Low-carbon travelling around the British Isles, she presents nature’s frauds, fortune-tellers, misfits and cheaters.

The natural world is built on parasitism, a cunning blend of bargaining and exploitation in the name of survival. In our relationship with the natural world, are we the parasites? Will we continue to exploit nature’s resources? Or will we vow to love and cherish what remains – shaping a more restorative life alongside nature – till death us do part?