Fifteen years ago, University of Oxford Professor Kathy Willis read a study that radically changed her view of our relationship to the natural world. The study revealed that hospital patients recovering from surgery improved three times faster when they looked out of their windows at trees rather than seeing walls.

Since then, Willis has dedicated her research to proving this link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood and longevity. Her new book, Good Nature, brings together these recent scientific findings and shares the simple changes we can all make in our lives. Moreover, this book shows how nature can help reduce the costs of healthcare and how, by bringing nature into towns and cities, we can create a better, happier and healthier environment for all.

Good Nature is a book with applications to everything from which way we walk to work to choosing where children should go to school – Willis brings the latest scientific research into our homes and workplaces. Her new book is full of surprising and practical ways that nature can improve lives, such as: did you know that cedar enhances cancer-fighting cells in our immune system? Or that touching wood makes us feel calmer? Or that the scent of roses helps people drive more calmly and safely? Of that having a pot plant by your desk can make a real difference?

Katherine Willis CBE is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of biology and the principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. Her research aims to understand how plant biodiversity responds, over time and space, to climate change and other environmental drivers. She is internationally recognized for her work and has led a number of initiatives to assimilate global knowledge on plant biodiversity. Her broadcasting work has included writing and presenting on several BBC television and radio programs. She is the author of Botanicum and was awarded the Michael Faraday Medal for public communication of science from the Royal Society in 2015.

Good Nature (Bloomsbury Group) will be released on the 29th of August, 2024.