The Beauty of the Night and the Importance of Darkness
My Month in Books | April 2025 - Special Edition: Night & Nature
Night & nature
When was the last time you went into a forest after dark without artificial light?
Have you ever seen owls, bats, a badger or a fox in the wild?
When did you last see the Milky Way?
Or watched the Moon rise?
This month I’ve been delving deep into the theme of night & nature. I’ve read some wonderful books that covered a wide variety of aspects and invited me to explore the topic even further.
I’ve read about a parallel world, the life of animals in the dark, the stars at night (can you still see them where you live?), evolution, the human fear of darkness, the problems of light pollution and the effect of constant illumination on animals and humans, but also about the beauty of the night and visits to the forests in the dark.
The books have excited me, touched me, inspired me and made me think. They alternate between warning against the loss of darkness and showing the beauty of the night, but above all, each book shares the author's passion and enthusiasm for the night and nature.
Here’s what I’ve read in April (all but one availabe in English).
(Spoiler: I can recommend them all!)
Books
The Darkness Manifesto, Johan Eklöf
It all started with this book. It was the first one I’ve come across, rather by chance. I started reading and it was absolutely eye-opening.
Swedish zoologist and writer Johan Eklöf has studied bats for over twenty years and is also known for his work on light pollution. In The Darkness Manifesto he puts a finger on one aspect in nature conservation and species protection that poses a massive threat to the natural world, but is often overlooked: The artificial light that illuminates our towns and villages.
Entire ecosystems rely on natural darkness to flourish, from bats and owls to insects and bioluminescent creatures of the deep. But constant illumination has made light pollution a major threat. Birds in overly bright surroundings sing in the middle of the night. Moths flutter around street lamps instead of pursuing their nocturnal purpose. Sea turtles head for the brightly lit promenade instead of the safety of the sea. Bat colonies lose their home in church attics and towers due to the now brightly illuminated churches. Humans also suffer from too much light, because disturbances to their sleep-wake rhythm can make them physically and mentally ill.
All of nature's rhythms are in some way dependent on the alternation between day and night.The Darkness Manifesto shows the serious consequences and the domino effect of damage we inflict by keeping the lights on.
With a personal narrative, scientifically sound and full of insight, this book is a rousing appeal for the protection of darkness, and as it touches on many things, it's a good place to start.
Wild Nights Out: The Magic of Exploring the Outdoors After Dark, Chris Salisbury
I was looking for something lighter and more practical to supplement the very interesting, but also somewhat grim initial read, and I found this cool guide by English outdoor educator Chris Salisbury.
It’s meant as a hands-on guide for parents, grandparents, teachers and nature educators who wish to take kids of all ages outdoors for nighttime nature adventures. The book offers guidance, ideas, challenges to try and games to play in the dusk and dark.
There are lots of fun and informative activities to expand our senses, for example to move as slowly and silently as possible or to listen more carefully. Also adventurous exercises that may need some courage like sitting in the dark forest for some time alone and finding our way back to the campfire. There is a great variety of activities and they all sound like fun. Each activity is very well explained, including variants, reasons, goals behind it. I have rarely read such a good and carefully prepared guide.
The book includes lots of interesting facts about animals, like mice, owls, bats, badgers, amphibians and more (well, animals you might find in Devonshire). These facts are often also incorporated into games, e.g. how to make echolocation understandable (game: bat and moth). We also learn about the night sky, a little astronomy for beginners.
Salisbury concludes with practical information on how to conduct night walks safely and gives suggestions for night walks under different aspects and with different contents, plus games, songs, poems, stories to tell at a campfire.
It’s a fantastic mix of usefulness and imagination, of practical experience and gentle adventures for beginners. Exploring and nature spotting don’t need to stop when the sun goes down. The book introduces people of all ages to the wonders of the night. Absolutely inspiring and encouraging - also for grown-ups!
Lebendige Nacht: Vom verborgenen Leben der Tiere, Sophia Kimmig
Note: It’s a German title and translates roughly as: Lively Night: The Hidden Life of Animals.
When the sun goes down, things get really interesting for wild animals: where people wait for buses during the day, a family of wild boars rummage through the rubbish bin at the bus stop. Foxes search for food, fireflies send out flashing signals to potential mates, raccoons rummage through the bushes. The night is not just a time, but a diverse habitat that we still know too little about.
German wildlife biologist Sophia Kimmig shares fascinating (and sometimes funny) stories, lots of information and scientific facts about the life of animals (and humans) at night. It’s scientifically sound, sheds lights on various aspects and all this knowledge is presented in an interesting way. Chapters alternate between a closer focus on an animal species (dormice, owls, bats, raccoons, moths) and a universal element on the theme of darkness and night. This keeps it interesting, exciting and varied.
Vividly written, lovingly described, a causal, humorous tone, but also looking at the serious side. Above all Kimmig manages to arouse curiosity for this exciting, mysterious, fascinating other world. Her passion and curiosity shine through in every sentence.
I loved this book! It made me really aware of the parallel world, where the lives of many wild animals take place, in the same place as ours, but at a different time. Two parallel worlds with their own creatures and rules, with their own reality. Fabulous!
It’s the second book I’ve read by Sophia Kimmig. The first one was about her studies on foxes in urban environments (find my review here). It was also excellent!
The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light, Paul Bogard
American writer Paul Bogard takes the reader on an interesting journey from the planet’s brightest single spot (Las Vegas' Luxor Beam) to nights so starlit the sky looks like snow. He focusses his travels on North America and Western Europe because that is where the history of artificial light began, which today extends across the whole world. He planned his trips according to the Bortle scale, a nine-level numeric scale that measures the night sky's brightness of a particular location.
It is the most comprehensive book I have read on the subject. It takes the time to go into the numerous aspects in depth. It is also an excellent read!
The book is a wonderful blend of personal narrative, travelogue, natural history and science, sociology and cultural history, and the natural wonder of the night sky. It considers lots of issues, from the invention of artificial light to the impact of working the night shift, it talks about the threat of light pollution for migrating birds as well as about light design in cities and our deeply engraved fear of darkness that we try to battle with more and brighter light. On his journey Bogard meets various people, from astronomers and scientists to activists, light designers and writers. He tells us about the Dark Sky Places and walks in the footsteps of Charles Dickens in London on a cold December night looking for the beauty of the original darkness in an old city. Again and again he turns his gaze to the night sky, wondering what he can see in the various shades and places of darkness.
Bogard manages to make a book about light pollution thoroughly enjoyable. It’s immersive, moving, thought-provoking and full of insights. A rich and terrific book! Highly recommended!
Above all Bogard invites readers along to experience and fall in love with the night sky. Also hoping that beauty, the appreciation and the knowledge will gradually prompt us to reclaim the darkness of night, a type of deep darkness most Americans and Europeans have lost.
(The book was first published in 2013. Some things might have changed - for the better and for the worse.)
Nightwalking: Four Journeys into Britain After Dark, John Lewis-Stempel
I’ve saved a literary book for last.
Nightwalking takes the reader on four nocturnal wanderings in Herefordshire, England, one for each season. Apart from the walk itself, each chapter includes diary entries from the respective time of year - and the occasional poem by famous writers.
John Lewis-Stempel reveals a world normally hidden from view. When we go to rest in the evening, a parallel world comes to life, nocturnal animals take back the countryside. He shows the beauty of the nightly world where it is still possible to see the sky full of stars, or witness a moonbow.
You might want to take some time to read this slim book so that it can unfold its full effect. It's like reading a book of poetry, often a little dreamlike, very fitting for nightly wanderings. A poetic language, interesting images that resonate.
It was an interesting read, but not my favourite of his. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for a literary book after reading mainly science based non-fiction books. Or maybe it’s just not particularly my kind of style. Don't let that stop you. If you are looking for a poetic take on being out and about at night, it’s certainly a good choice.
Beyond the books
What all the books I’ve read have in common is that they make me want to explore darkness and the night out in nature again. I would like to rediscover them for myself.
Stargazing in the summer on a moonless night. Seeing what there is to see from where I live.
Looking out for Dark Sky Places nearby. It seems, the islands Pellworm and Spiekeroog in the North Sea are closest to where I live. That could be amazing.
Experiencing the moonrise. Taking the time to get to know the moon times and go somewhere out of town where I can see the full moon rise.
Maybe taking a walk into the forest at dusk or after dark. I’m starting with a guided tour into the forest in May to watch young tawny owls. (I’m really excited about that one.)
Let’s see what else arises.
I’ll let you know …
Benefits of living where I do is that I get to experience the forest by night every night. It's interesting to hear how the forest changes from light to dusk to night. I love hearing the owls wake up, and sometimes when we're lucky seeing them as well. It's a completely different world and it used to scare me to be out at night but now I've come to realise it's quite magical. Thanks for all the booktips!
This is such an interesting topic. Thanks for sharing. It made me realise how little time I actively spend in the darkness outside. It's been a while since I've last seen the Milky Way.
Pellworm is an excellent place for stargazing. I have captured photos of the Milky Way there before. There is not much light pollution out there.