We are delighted to share with you news of Chris’s new book, ‘Wild Nights Out‘, being published in June 2021
with a foreword by Chris Packham.

ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE BOOK

In his wonderful book, Wild Nights Out, Chris Salisbury reminds of so many things forgotten. The night is truly, fully half of our lives. Yet today we live as if we have only experienced the day. Through his wonderful stories, lore, science and accessible activities, Chris helps us remember that we are, as humans, at least half darkness. Through the journey of Wild Nights Out, we are remembering the part of us that has been hidden in recent times, and it’s like meeting a long lost relative that we truly love.
Jon Young, Author of Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature and What the Robin Knows.

So inspiring! Reading Wild Nights Out is like being given an invitation to a whole new dimension of life. Exploring and nature-spotting doesn’t need to stop when the sun goes down. For grownups, children, and anyone in-between, this book offers guidance, ideas, challenges to try, and games to play in the dusk and dark. But more than anything else it encourages us to cross a threshold into a new world, and go on a nocturnal ramble to look and listen for where the wild things are.
Simon Reeve, author and broadcaster

Wild Nights Out is a masterful guide for night walks. Chock-full of engaging games and fascinating information, this book makes leading nighttime excursions a joy. Chris Salisbury has created a magnificent and comprehensive resource for anyone who loves the night.
Joseph Bharat Cornell, author of Sharing Nature, Deep Nature Play, and Flow Learning

Chris Salisbury is a consummate guide to the night and its chrysalis-like capacity to convert us from sailors of safe and certain harbours to celebrants of uncharted seas — wanderers amidst wild wonders such as nocturnal creatures (like owls, bats, and badgers) or the existential conundrums elicited by the night sky (like Why are we here?). Chris doesn’t resolve the frights and riddles of the dark, but deftly draws us in, supporting us to make our own dazzling discoveries — and to be shape-shifted by our nightwalk odysseys. Wild Nights Out: Don’t go into the dark without it.
Dr Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft and The Journey of Soul Initiation

Chris Salisbury knows of what he speaks. This storyteller has been thoroughly drubbed in nature’s mood swings, and come up the wiser for it. Wild Nights Out is an inventive mapping of that accumulated knowledge. Long before it was even vaguely fashionable, Chris was walking the roads of wildness and story and this book is a lovely testament to his devotion. Both pragmatic and poetic, Wild Nights Out will be a worthy companion for anyone who yearns for a fresh and unexpected relationship to the living world. There are big, powerful energies out there in the dark, and a few have slipped into this book, chewing on its edges.
Dr Martin Shaw, author of Courting The Wild Twin, Scatterlings and Snowy Tower.

Loved the book. A fantastic mix of usefulness and imagination, of practical experience and love for the living world.
Jay Griffiths, author of Wild: An Elemental Journey, and Kith

This book has been a long time coming in the nature education field, and finally Chris Salisbury has put down in words something that should be in every nature/environmental educators pocket and on their shelf of well thumbed pages. Wild Nights Out is neatly book ended with the question why is it dark? and takes the practitioner on a journey exploring this and many other questions about the shady side of the planet. It is not just in Chris’s inimitable poetry that make this such a great read, it is the enticing experiences and journeys into the night that Chris takes us on that we can easily replicate, adapt and conduct with our groups of learners which will help relate to and answer those questions of the night. This book is packed full of activities for immersing learners in the world of dusk to dawn that can be adapted for any ages and gives the all-important health and safety tips to help people feel comfortable and yet still feel the nervous anticipation, excitement and beauty of the darkened hours. There are poems and stories, ways to use stories around the campfire, lots of natural history and ‘tuning in’ activities and titbits, journeys into different habitats – from the river to the seashore, and of course ways of magically interacting with the night sky. We miss out on this most important aspect of nature learning in a big way in our industrially lit world. This book will help the educator, and the learners they guide, fill in the gaps of our experiences, revelling in what is a magical kingdom, helping us see the night as a constant companion and explore those deeper questions about what it means to live on the beautiful planet and it’s ‘dark side’. It is a must for all nature educators around the planet.
Jon Cree Founding chair of the Forest School Association, author of ‘The Essential Guide to Forest School and Nature Pedagogy, and veteran educator and nature connection trainer.