Synopsis:

Meet the rare, obscure and utterly British species found nowhere else on earth.
Around 70,000 species call Britain home, but how many of them can be found here and only here? Join conservationist James Harding-Morris as he uncovers the stories of our endemic wildlife – the plants, animals and fungi that are unique to these islands.

Determined to give these irreplaceable species their moment in the spotlight, James goes in search of them across the length and breadth of Britain, from wild and rugged Orkney, the only known location for the Orkney vole, down to suburban Plymouth where the horrid ground-weaver spider faces global extinction at the hands of developers. He seeks out alien fungi on the roadsides of Norfolk, explores Devon’s depths in the hunt for ghostly cave shrimps, and traces the tribulations of interrupted brome, a grass that has gone extinct not once, but twice.

Along the way, James meets the experts devoted to the study and survival of these vanishingly rare creatures and plants, individuals working tirelessly – and often single-handedly – to save them from the brink of global extinction. Because many of these species are at risk of disappearing forever, before most of us have even realised they exist.

A tapestry of wonder and weirdness, tragedies and triumphs, Endemic celebrates what makes our natural history so special and calls on us all to cherish and protect it.

Genre: Nature Non-Fiction
Publisher: Bloomsbury Outdoors
Pub Date: 7 August 2025

Storygraph

Bookshop.org

Kobo

This book was sent to me for free by the publisher.

Review:

An endemic species is one that can only be found in one very particular place in the wild. You may now be thinking of something tropical, but Britain actually has around 700 endemic species of its own! They may not all be flashy, but they are ours, and James Harding-Morris is on a mission to bring some of them into the limelight.

Through the book, Harding-Morris sets out to find a number of our endemic species with the help of some fellow naturalists. The majority of our endemics are plants, and like other readers of this book, I was shocked to learn that we have 250 species of dandelion here, 53 of which are endemic!

You can tell that the author has a real love for what he is doing. The storytelling is entertaining, and the pure enthusiasm of finding a species is infectious through the pages with his descriptions of what he finds. I especially loved ‘Interrupted Brome’ (our only endemic grass) being described as looking like when someone crunches their head back on their neck to avoid their neck being tickled.
A particular favourite chapter was the finding of the Celtic woodlouse. I adore woodlice, and I was thrilled that they had a whole chapter (and they appear on the cover!).

Hunting down these species isn’t easy, and this difficulty wasn’t glossed over. So many of them are hard to find for various reasons, and this also makes them so vulnerable to extinction, with many of our endemics being ‘lost’ over the years. They’re not all flashy, and most of us don’t know about them at all, but that doesn’t make them less important.

All in all, a fabulous read, and one I highly recommend for anyone wanting to know more about nature in the UK (keep a search tab open on your phone – you’ll need it!).