One of the very important features is the length of the chapters, or parables if you like - perfect for quiet-time reading and reflection.
- Allan Fox, Queanbeyan, Apr 05
His use of evocative language is a delight. It has an almost poetic quality about it with its unexpected metaphors, similes and adjectives that make for easy and enjoyable reading.
- John Dorman, Bundanoon, Oct 05
In this book, of the many things made clear is the delicate balance of nature of which we humans are a part.
- Ken Wilder, Southern Highlands News, Jan 06
David has set himself the task of enlisting the reader as a gentle and persuasive instrument of change, soundly instructed in key natural survival strategies.
- Bernard Eddy, Robertson News, Feb 06
A fascinating journey into the working principles of the Earth and its living inhabitants - a book of profound humility, placing human society into its natural context so that we can see the greater design of which we are a part ... a book of unusually broad observational knowledge presented in a way that reminds me of a series of talks to a wise and gentle community elder.
- Dr Elizabeth Heij, CSIRO Sustainability Network, Feb 06
Your clear style and reasoning will be readily understood by any moderately bright 13 or 14 year old.
- John Benning, Mittagong, Mar 06
He looks at the world as a series of interactions. But he paints with both large and small-scale elements, so we can follow the eye of the artist through his words.
- Denis Wilson, Eucryphia, Mar 06
Drawing on down-to-earth perspective gained from biological research, a childhood outdoors, and a range of unique adventures, Tranter has written a rewarding book that powerfully illustrates how similar patterns in space and time ultimately bind society and nature together.
- Ecos 33, CSIRO Publishing, Feb-Mar 06
I found this book an interesting read in the way the author links all the parts into one whole. From the start of the universe to a discussion of quarks and all in between, David Tranter makes this an interesting journey. All this in one hundred and fifty six elegantly written pages.
- Robert Pallin, N.C.C. Quarterly Newsletter, Mar 06
This book is the personal journey of a compassionate man, a scientist, thinker and conservationist. The book is elegantly and imaginatively written. The illustrations by Penny St Vincent Welch are delightful. The author avoids the techno-speak so commonly used in this genre.
- Dr Kevin Mills, Jamberoo, Mar 06
Thankfully lacking the argot of more narrowly focussed scientific treatises, Nature and Society manages to inform and inspire - to ably describe the very complex, using simple language crafted elegantly. Tranter’s description of the physics of light is as uncluttered as any this reviewer has come across, and his entry dealing with the relationship between light (energy) and life is evidence of his simple, concise style - a book that honours the wonder of the natural world and seeks to foment thought as to our place amongst, and as part of it.
- Patrick O’Neill, Chain Reaction (Friends of the Earth), Apr 06
He has grasped the strands of the web of life and they are now a part of him, and he a part of nature. He has a sense of belonging, a state that transcends passion, and what hurts nature pains him. Krishnamurti said, when one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, the temples, mosques and churches become important. This book gives us reasons to re-establish that deep intimate relationship with nature and the temples, mosques and churches must take their chances.
- Tony Hill, NPA, Apr 06
The cameos give the book a filmic quality and provide some of the book’s gems - crystal clear descriptions of natural phenomena, many of which are drawn from the author’s own marine research career.
- N&S Forum Newsletter, Canberra, Apr-May 06
This text presents an impressive summary of a vast array of concepts that all weave together to describe the fundamentally linked nature of people and environment – a tractable doorway into a territory that, as most of us know, is almost overwhelmingly vast.
- Dr Roderic Gill, Director UNE Centre for Ecological Economics, May 06
David Tranter’s book Nature and Society makes a remarkable amount of sense. Among other things, he describes a range of thresholds in nature and links them to thresholds in society. I reckon properly designed and run collaborative events use this principle too.
- Smart Meetings (Queensland, the Smart State), June 06
By focusing on the inherently organic nature of human life, this book connects the disciplines of the natural sciences and politics to create a novel and insightful view of both.
- Lynne Joslyn and John Kaye, Greenmail, July 06
What makes the book so outstanding is the language, gentle and thoughtful, and the ability of the author to explain what are sometime very complex issues in terms that can be easily understood.
- Habitat Australia (Australian Conservation Foundation), July 06
It would be wonderful to see some of the concepts raised in this book explored in more detail and folded into public debates about how to make fundamental changes to our relationship with nature.
- Senator Andrew Bartlett, Sep 06
Nature and Society is well written, unaffected, and without the deadly repetition that afflicts so many books of this genre. Its short chapters build on each other, complete with nifty transitions that lock the book into a continuous whole.
- David Jago, Pacific Waves (Inst. Of Cultural Affairs-Australia), Sep 06
At last, someone has had the courage to focus on the processes whereby our modern Society has failed to establish homeostasis (sustainability) in our living Earth.
I commend the book for careful reading – and action!
- Dr. Graham Chittleborough, Oct 06
