David Quammen was the first person I told about the idea for this book and he has been an astoundingly gracious supporter from the start. His masterwork, Song of the Dodo, helped to erode an early writing block, as at various points did Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, David George Haskell’s The Forest Unseen and Kathryn Schulz’s Being Wrong. Their works sat on my shelf as reminders of the quality I aspired to reach.
