The Life Cycle – Kate Rawles

Wild Writers Festival 2024

presents

Kate Rawles, a writer and cyclist who has long used adventurous journeys to raise awareness about environmental challenges, Kate recently spent a year cycling 8,000 miles along the length of South America on “Woody”, a self-built, bamboo-framed bike to explore the continent’s biodiversity. Her resulting book, The Life Cycle, is part cracking travel story and part call to arms: a look at why the natural world is so important and what we can all do to protect it.   

Pedalling from the Caribbean to the South Atlantic Ocean, through every ecosystem imaginable, she learns that armadillos can cross rivers by holding their breath, that Colombia has more species of birds than North America and Europe combined, and that in threatening species and ecosystems, we’re endangering our own life support system.   

En route, she witnesses the devastation of gold mining and oil drilling but finds hope in the remarkable people working to regenerate habitats and communities – and a sense that, to tackle biodiversity loss, everyone has a role to play.  

Shortlisted for the 2023 Banff Mountain Book Competition (Adventure category) 

“A gripping read for anyone who cares about what we’re doing to the planet and how we can change it” David Shukman, Former BBC News Science Editor