United States
£ GBP
For Charles Darwin – who estimated every acre of land contained 53,000 earthworms – the humble earthworm was the most important creature on the planet. And yet, most people know almost nothing about these little engineers of the earth. We take them for granted but, without the earthworm, the world's soil would be barren, and our gardens, fields and farms wouldn't be able to grow the food and support the animals we need to survive.
Sally Coulthard provides a complete profile of the earthworm by answering fifty questions about these wiggling creatures, from 'What happens if I chop a worm in half?' to 'Would humans survive if worms went extinct?' Fascinating and beautifully illustrated, The Book of the Earthworm offers a feast of quirky facts and practical advice about the world's most industrious – but least understood – invertebrate.
Author Sally Coulthard has spent the last twenty years designing, building, planting and writing about homes, craft and outdoor spaces. Keen to make good design accessible, she’s written over twenty books about restoring houses, designing interiors and creating outdoor spaces. From garden styles to designing with salvage, creating workspaces to building sheds, Sally’s books inspire, encourage and equip readers to take on projects of their own.
Sally is also a passionate advocate of rural living and regularly writes about nature and her experiences of smallholding deep in North Yorkshire countryside. She currently writes the Good Life in the Country column for Country Living magazine.
Sally is the author of How To Build a Shed (Laurence King); The Hedgehog Handbook (Anima); The Little Book of Snow (Anima); CRAFTED (Quadrille), The Little Book of Building Fires (Anima); STUDIO (Jacqui Small), Shed Decor (Jacqui Small), Home of Your Own: Creating Interiors With Character (Merrell), Gardenalia (Jacqui Small), Shed Chic (Jacqui Small), The Reclaimers (Hodder & Stoughton), Restored to Glory: A Guide to Renovating your Period Home (BBC Books) and many other books.
"Coulthard is a fine writer"
– Yorkshire Times
"I thought I knew quite a bit about earthworms – until I picked up this charming little book [...] This is an easily digestible compendium of everything earthworm"
– Nick Baker, TV presenter and naturalist
"A jaunt through the life of the earthworm incorporates sections such as: Can earthworms see? Which end of an earthworm is which? How long do earthworms live? (Over a decade in some cases, apparently.) And can you train a worm? Yes really! So while on the surface of it a book about what is basically a bendy brown tube with 'a head and a bum', as the author puts it, might not sound like a scintillating read, it really is [...] A gem of a book"
– Country Smallholding
"Sally Coulthard profiles these misunderstood creatures, offering a feast of quirky facts to answer all your curiosities"
– Grow Your Own
"The author provides a complete profile of earthworms by answering 50 questions and including practical advice and quirky facts"
– Garden Answers
"Many wonderful wormy tales unearthed by Coulthard [...] [A] smart little book [...] There's plenty of country lore too, and entertaining summaries of scientific studies"
– BBC Countryfile Magazine
