London’s Natural History

London's Natural History describes how the spread of man’s activities has affected the plants and animals in them, destroying some and creating others.


Collins are delighted to announce the republication in facsimile form of the first editions of the very first volumes in the New Naturalist Library. Originally planned in the darkest days of World War II and first published in 1945, this series is the longest running nature series in the world. It is a reflection of the quality of the authors and the books they wrote, that they are still sought after 73 years later. The books will be identical in every way to the original first editions, including the iconic jackets by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis.


Richard Fitter provided the first comprehensive history of a great human community in terms of the animals and plants it has displaced, changed, moved and removed, introduced, conserved, lost or forgotten. In selecting London as an area for such study Mr. Fitter, himself a Londoner, took the world’s largest aggregation of human beings living in a single community and in many ways the most interesting perhaps of all regions of the British Isles, and showed how the spread of man’s activities affected the plants and animals in them, destroying some, creating others.