''A rare and magical book. I didn''t want it to end.'' Bill Bryson

''A total miracle.'' Max Porter

''A witty, intoxicating paean to Earth''s wondrous creatures.'' Observer

Rundell''s pen is gold-tipped.'' Sunday Times

SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR

The world is more astonishing, more miraculous and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this passionately persuasive and sharply funny book, Katherine Rundell tells us how and why. A lavishly illustrated collection of the lives of some of the Earth''s most astounding animals, The Golden Mole is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck - to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness. A swift flies two million kilometres in its lifetime. That''s far enough to get to the moon and back twice over - and then once more to the moon. A pangolin keeps its tongue furled in a pouch by its hip, a Greenland shark can live five hundred years, a wombat once inspired a love poem.