"Full of heart, this book is teeming with a love for nature, friendship, self-reflection, and the importance of community. "
This wonderfully honest and heartfelt book salutes volunteering, and also sits as an offering for the meaning of community. It tells the very personal story of a volunteer manager, while celebrating the people who give nature and those around them a helping hand. Carol Donaldson is an ecologist, conservationist, and writer, she has written for the BBC Wildlife magazine, Wanderlust, and The Guardian.
This book covers six years, as the author leads a group of countryside conservation volunteers. She is incredibly thoughtful and reflective as she looks back, her honesty is disarming. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Carol and her team, a family and community that was built with blood, sweat, tears (and the occasional near drowning!).
The natural elements are just wonderful, described with an abiding yet realistic love. The tidbits of information and history are fascinating, and sit nicely alongside the more personal aspects. I actually feel it would be of benefit for all those working with volunteers (no matter the cause) to read this book.
I’ve worked for three charities, have managed volunteers, and also been a volunteer, a lot of these stories caused echoes of feelings to cascade back into force. While Carol credits a previous manager with teaching her how to treat the volunteers she worked with, she obviously also had a lot of her own gifts to pass on.
This, this is what volunteering should be about! The Volunteers is a sincere, heart-warming, and compelling book, highly recommended.
A heart-warming true story of the woods and wildlife, conservation and community, perfect for fans of Detectorists and The Outlaws
| Primary Genre | Nature and the natural world: general interest |
| Other Genres: | |
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A heart-warming true story of the woods and wildlife, conservation and community, perfect for fans of Detectorists and The Outlaws When Carol's world suddenly unravels, leaving her single and jobless, she stumbles upon an unexpected opportunity: leading a ragtag team of countryside conservation volunteers. At first glance, the prospect of nurturing Britain's diverse wildlife in the great outdoors seems like a dream come true.
The Volunteers features in the following genres: Non-Fiction Books of the Month, Recommendations, Biographies & Autobiographies, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Mind, body, spirit, Nature and the natural world: general interest, Nature therapy, Memoirs, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Complementary therapies, healing and health, Conservation of wildlife and habitats, Conservation of the environment, Environmental management, The environment, Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning
Paperback. £9.89, down from the £10.99 cover price. Temporarily Out Of Stock.
The Volunteers was written by Carol Donaldson and published by Summersdale Publishers an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group
The Volunteers has 304 pages
£9.89, reduced from £10.99. Temporarily Out Of Stock.
