The Secret World of Twilight A Natural History of Dusk and Dawn

About this book

Every day, just before sunrise and straight after sunset, magic happens. Dawn and dusk – those fleeting, half-lit hours – are when the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Skies flare with colour, landscapes shift in mood and an unseen cast of creatures emerges from the shadows. Welcome to twilight.

In The Secret World of Twilight, author and smallholder Sally Coulthard invites us into this magical in-between realm, where seductive night-blooming flowers open, secretive mammals stir, giant moths reign and fantastical sea creatures ride the tide. Twilight profoundly affects human life too – but in our age of electric light and closed doors, we've almost forgotten how to see it.

Blending natural history, folklore and memoir, Coulthard reveals twilight as a vital, liminal force: one that has inspired awe for millennia and still has the power to illuminate our daily lives.

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Biography

Sally Coulthard is a bestselling author of over twenty-five books about natural history and rural life including A Short History of the World According to Sheep, The Hedgehog Handbook and A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects. After studying Archaeology and Anthropology at Oxford, and working in factual television production, Sally moved back to her beloved Yorkshire, married a gardener and set up a smallholding; it's from there, surrounded by her family and other animals, that Sally writes from a shed in the old orchard.