JAY GRIFFITHS

Kith is a passionate examination of what it means to be a child, by Jay Griffiths, the award-winning author of Wild. While travelling the world in order to write her award-winning book Wild, Jay Griffiths became increasingly aware of the huge differences in how childhood is experienced in various cultures. One central riddle, in particular, captured her imagination: Why are so many children in Euro-American cultures unhappy - and why is it that children in many traditional cultures seem happier? In Kith, Jay Griffiths explores these questions and many more. Moving from communities in West Papua and the Arctic to the ostracised young people of contemporary Britain, she asks why we have enclosed our children in a consumerist cornucopia but denied them the freedoms of space, time and deep play. She uses history, philosophy, language and literature to illustrate children's affinity for the natural world and the essential quest element of childhood. Kith is Jay Griffiths' impassioned, illuminating analysis of a universal rite of passage. In its urgent defence of the rights and needs of every child, it is a journey into the heart of human experience.

'I took seven years over this work, spent all I had, my time, money and energy. Part of the journey was a green riot and part a deathly bleakness. I got ill, I got well. I went to the freedom fighters of West Papua and sang my head off in their highlands. I met cannibals infinitely kinder and more trustworthy than the murderous missionaries who evangelize them. I anchored a boat to an iceberg where polar bears slept; ate witchetty grubs and visited sea gypsies. I found a paradox of wildness in the glinting softness of its charisma, for what is savage is in the deepest sense gentle and what is wild is kind. In the end - a strangely sweet result - I came back to a wild home...'

If bravery itself could write it would write like she does John Berger Why rebel Because our footprint on the Earth has never mattered more than now How we treat it in the spirit of gift or of theft has never been more important Because we need a politics of kindness but the very opposite is on the rise Libertarian fascism with its triumphal brutalism its racism and misogyny a politics that loathes the living world Because nature is not a hobby It is the life on which we depend as Indigenous societies have never forgotten Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars and they are lining up now to write rebellion across the skies From the author of Wild this passionate poetic manifesto for urgent rebellion is also a paean to the deep and extraordinary beauty of the natural world Jay Griffiths helped redefine activism for a generation combining detailed research with a poet s flair for language Her works defy categorisation and fizz with original ideas and excitement Byline Times Jay s writing has reduced me to hot throbs of grief through beauty and subtlety to the depths of the hurt of these times and what a liberation to express this to free the space in my chest to feel the love that propels me forwards Gail Bradbrook Che

A moving essential book Nobody writes about Nature with more beauty and grace than Jay Griffiths Brian Eno From celebrated author Jay Griffiths comes a unique and heartfelt insight into the healing nature of our relationship with animals Pet owners and animal lovers instinctively know that animals heal This book offers the evidence drawing widely on scientific discoveries history and Indigenous knowledge We meet a pot bellied pig who saved her owner s life lions who guarded a girl from kidnappers dolphins and whales rescuing people in danger and dogs who can smell cancer and phone the Emergency Services Animal sounds from insects to birdsong and the purring of cats are directly medicinal and their presence can heal the pain of loneliness Animals including donkeys can be natural therapists for the hurt psyche alleviating trauma fear and depression In this original revelatory and exuberant book Jay Griffiths explores how animals can have a role in every level of healing from the individual to the collective guiding us in how we might create societies that are healthier fairer and kinder Wolves may be teachers of ethics monkeys and dogs can object to unfairness and bees take collective decisions Animals are irresistible medicine for a hea