How Animals Heal Us

Jay Griffiths helped redefine activism for a generation, combining detailed research with a poet’s flair for language. Her works defy categorisation and fizz with original ideas and excitement

Byline Times

Imagine meeting someone on a train who turns to you and starts telling you the most amazing stories about animals. Each one makes you go "wow!" And she can talk for hours—eloquently, magically. This is Jay Griffiths. Then she puts it all in a wonderful book, and you can return to these tales again and again

David Rothenberg, author of 'Why Birds Sing'

Weaving humor, empathy, pathos, and so much more, Griffiths shows that animals are braided throughout the human psyche. An absolute fountain of fact, culture, and raw animal power!

Carl Safina, 'Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe'

Deeply researched and highly readable, this is a moving and exquisitely written exploration of how we are shaped by different creatures from tigers to teddy bears

Caroline Eden, author of 'Samarkand: Recipes and Stories From Central Asia and the Caucasus'

Griffiths’s genius is to reveal the familiar as wondrous, strange, miraculous. Incredible and heart-wrenching, this gift of a book will shift your relationship to animals

Ben Rawlence, author of 'The Treeline'

A book of boundless passion and compassion. As she explores the worlds of animals, Jay Griffiths make the case for a different way of living: a joyous, vital inclusivity. This is how a book should be - genuinely mind-expanding

Tom Bullough, author of 'Addlands'

Beautiful and important . . . Griffiths provides a deeply personal and intelligent account of the vital importance of having animals in our lives, and in our world

Dr Hannah Burgon, author of 'Equine-Assisted Therapy & Learning with At-Risk Young People'

Marvellous, urgently important and compellingly readable . . . A surging, deeply resonant hymn to the joys of entanglement with the more-than-human world

Charles Foster, author of 'Cry of the Wild'

A revelatory and utterly fascinating book. What comes across through the array of stories and insights drawn from the ethology Griffiths has researched and conveyed so brilliantly is both a sense of wonder and also gratitude: we are fortunate to share our lives with these animals and this moving, inspiring and joyous book powerfully reminds us of this

James Macdonald Lockhart, author of 'Wild Air'

Essential reading . . . When we figure out how to live compassionately alongside animals, we will resolve our human problems . . . That is no easy task, but after reading Griffiths’s wonderful book, it is at least an easy choice

Dr Alex Lockwood, author of 'The Pig in Thin Air'

Evocative and heart-warming, this brilliantly researched book is joyful, generous and wise in equal measure, and always written with spirit and flair

John Lister-Kaye, author of 'At the Water's Edge: A Walk in the Wild'

‘Jay Griffiths is an artist, and this book is poetry – buzzing with courage and honesty. How Animals Heal Us is wonder and grief combined, speaking passionately to vibrant ways of being, and vibrant possibilities for the future . . . It is a true visionary work

Laura Coleman, author of 'The Puma Years'

How Animals Heal Us is a wise, deep, and tender account of animal healing for humans, written in lyrical language that sings with compassion. This is one of my favourite books of all time

Pascale Petit, author of 'What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo'

Animal magic in Jay Griffiths’s uniquely beautiful voice. Facts have never been so lovingly told

Laline Paull, author of 'The Bees'

In How Animals Heal Us, Jay Griffiths weaves a poetic tapestry of wonders; a searing, soaring manifesto for reviving our vital communion with other creatures

Natalie Lawrence, author of 'Enchanted Creatures'

An exhilarating epic journey through the zoological kingdom . . . This encyclopaedic account of what we owe our fellow animals is humbling. It fired my imagination again and made me see our companions through Griffiths’s fresh and compassionate eyes

Gwyneth Lewis, author of 'Nightshade Mother'

Expansive, immersive, tender and poignant. Jay Griffiths forensically reveals the layers and depths of the human-animal bond, the imperative for sensitivity and attention to the animal realm around us, and why humanity must change direction as deftly as a swift to ensure our health and wellbeing. An absorbing and thought-provoking read

Dr Sean Wensley, author of 'Through A Vet's Eyes'

Griffiths channels her customary compassion and wisdom and draws on science, history and indigenous knowledge to present myriad evidence that animals actually do heal us. And, remarkably, this is not just a book about how they heal loneliness, alleviate trauma, fear and depression in human individuals; from wolves that teach ethics to the collective decisions of bees, it is also about how animals can guide us in creating societies that are healthier, fairer and kinder

The Bookseller

Reading Jay’s book is like reading a pure praise poem to the more than human world, a poem filled with love, respect and joy. It thrums with wit, wisdom, understanding and research. But mostly the joy of being connected to life, from the smallest insect to the great whales

Jackie Morris, 'The Lost Words'

Humbling, inspiring, and so beautifully written, this is an utterly compelling exploration of our relationship with animals, and their extraordinary power to heal us

Caroline Lucas, former leader of the Green Party