WHERE THE SEALS SING (PB)

Over the course of a year, Susan Richardson comes to know a colony of seals, watching as it is hit by storms in the autumn pupping season, experiencing sociable winter haul-outs and sympathising as the colony scratch and fidget through their annual moult. She traces the rhythm of their lives, travelling the coasts clockwise from Cornwall to Norfolk and the drama unfolds against the backdrop of other observations: adders sliding sidelong from hibernation; choughs foraging for beetles among spring squill and thrift; compass jellyfish navigating the bafflement of waves.