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  A fascinating book, looking at the literary fossils of extinction. Esoteric primary sources inform us how our forebears incorporated a vanished nature into their worldview. Extinct British sturgeon were used as an antidepressant, heretical tree frogs prompted theological questioning, and rare cranes were so nauseating that their flesh needed exotic spices to be palatable. From great auks and lynx, to whale and darnel, how our ancestors treated the declining and diminishing species of their time holds many lessons for the present.

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  Ross Barnett, author of The Missing Lynx

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  Yet another must-buy book for my library by the amazing Lee Raye. Creatures of Story and Song fulfils its titular promise with tales that enchant. I loved the medieval stories about the white wild boar guiding St Kentigern through the forest – you can almost hear each crunch of its solid hooves on the dry leaves – and the warning from St Cuthbert to the upland shepherds to beware nocturnal ambush from the “dusky lion”. Could it be that lynx lingered much longer in Britain than their bone remains suggest? If it did then Lee Raye will hunt down their tales. This is a great reference book that you can still snuggle into in an evening to enjoy. Acquire it as soon as you possibly can.

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  Derek Gow, author of Bringing Back the Beaver

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  This most enjoyable and compelling publication focuses on a select group of – now extinct – species in Britain, telling their story through the lens of popular culture from centuries past. A masterpiece that will appeal to natural historians and casual readers alike.

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  Brigitte Webster, author of Eating with the Tudors

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  Part bestiary, part social history, Lee Raye’s Creatures of Story and Song plots the reputation and symbolic force of some of Britain’s lost species in both the landscapes and the dreamscapes they inhabited, showing that their demise – often at human hands – is a cultural as well as ecological loss. Both delightful and sorrowful, Creatures of Story and Song revitalises the natural history tradition for the twenty-first century with equal attention to ‘nature’ and ‘history’.

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  Stella Sandford, Professor of Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University

Introduction
I Sea
1 Whale
2 Great Auk
3 Eagle
II Forest
4 Wolf
5 Wild Boar
6 Lynx
7 Pine Tree
III Field and Town
8 Bustard
9 Red Kite
10 Darnel
IV Freshwater
11 Sturgeon
12 Frog
13 Crane
14 Beaver
Conclusion
References
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Lee Raye is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, a Research Officer at Bangor University and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. They are the author of The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife (2023).