Penguin Classics launches ‘new canon’ of environmental literature

Imprint's Green Ideas series begins with 20 short books by writers from Rachel Carson to Greta Thunberg it believes are the classics that made a movement'

From Greta Thunberg to James Lovelock, publisher Penguin Classics has come up with a new canon" of the environmental literature, which it believes has changed the way we think and talk about the living Earth".

The move is part of a growing trend in publishing for books focused on the climate, whether from big hitters such as David Attenborough or Bill Gates, whose How to Avoid a Climate Disaster was out in February, or so-called cli-fi", climate fiction, from writers including Richard Powers and Jenny Offill. Penguin's Green Ideas series capitalises on this appetite, collecting 20 short books it believes constitute the classics that made a movement", by visionary thinkers around the world [who] have raised their voices to defend the planet".