The books reviewed in this edition of NBC are loosely linked by the theme of animals and how they interact with humans-as sources of meat, wool, bone and manure; as the basis of economic livelihoods and social status; and for transport, protection and companionship. We will see shellfish collected from the foreshore, and cod and herring fished from the seas; we will witness how ecosystems and physical landscapes are transformed by the eradication of wild species and by the management of domesticated ones. And we will see animals, as a source of ritual power, sacrificed and buried, and of muscle power, carrying cargoes of salt into the mountains and turning millstones to grind grain.
Fishy business