David Quammen is the best-selling author of a dozen fiction and non-fiction books, including The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr Darwin and Spillover, which was a finalist for the US National Book Critics Circle Award and a Scientific American Book of the Year. He is a contributing writer for National Geographic and has written award-winning essays for Outside, Esquire, The Atlantic and Rolling Stone. He travels widely on assignment, usually to jungles, mountains, remote islands and swamps.

Praise for Tangled Tree:‘[Quammen] is our greatest living chronicler of the natural world … There are vivacious descriptions on almost every page.’ New York Times‘In The Tangled Tree, celebrated science writer David Quammen tells perhaps the grandest tale in biology … He presents the science – and the scientists involved – with patience, candour and flair.’ Nature‘Quammen adds some intriguing new discoveries’ New ScientistPraise for David Quammen:‘One of that rare breed of science journalists who blends exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling’ Nature‘Mr. Quammen is, by trade, neither professional environmentalist nor scientist. He is a writer. And the book he has worked on for 10 years is intelligent, playful and refreshingly free of cant … In Mr. Quammen’s hands, the bad news of species extinction unaccountably uplifts. For it reminds us of nature’s sheer, ornery diversity, and why it needs to be preserved. We share in the excitement of a new scientific discipline aborning. By book’s end, we glean hints of hope that the future may not be entirely bleak … Here is what a book can be’The New York Times Book Review‘Quammen is no ordinary writer. He is simply astonishing, one of that rare class of writer gifted with verve, ingenuity, humour, guts, and great heart’ Elle