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Wild Cities: Journeys through the Modern Urban Jungle
The majority of the world now lives in some form of urban environment. But as the human footprint of brick, concrete and metal expands, our proximity to nature decreases. This is a problem; nature isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. And it’s vital to our wellbeing.
From tiny urban forests in Tokyo and the star-rich skies of Flagstaff, to the meandering waters of Munich and prowling lions of Nairobi, this is a globe-spanning look at how to bring nature into the places we live – and how to create the wild cities of the future.
From tiny urban forests in Tokyo and the star-rich skies of Flagstaff, to the meandering waters of Munich and prowling lions of Nairobi, this is a globe-spanning look at how to bring nature into the places we live – and how to create the wild cities of the future.
408 pages, Paperback
Published April 9, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 10, 2025
This is all I want in a non-fiction read. Well researched, engaging writing, good structure that lets the ideas flow from one to the other. Increasingly, I find that if you want to know what's really going on around the world, particularly good stuff, it helps to switch off the news and pick up a book. There are so many people out there who are thinking outside the box, sharing their ideas and bringing their communities along with them, to make awesome things happen. This book has given me lots of food for thought :)
April 9, 2025
A global exploration of the ways cities are slowly finding balance with nature, ecosystems, and the human need for natural connection, I loved this book!
The writing style is phenomenal. Fitch brings us with him every step of the way, explaining technical concepts in ways that are easy to understand, introducing us to amazing humans he's met along his travels, and his conversational style makes this a joy to read.
I was delighted at the breadth of topics in the book from fish migration, to biking infrastructure, to foraging, to the ways that animals have been forced to adapt to cityscapes. There's a phenomenal narrative thread and interconnectedness to every single element. Rarely do I encounter such readable and propulsive non-fic!
I can't recommend this highly enough. If you're dismayed by sprawling metropolises, car-centricity, climate breakdown... and would like a snapshot of how things could be, check out this book.
My request to review this was approved by 4th Estate / William Collins on NetGalley.
The writing style is phenomenal. Fitch brings us with him every step of the way, explaining technical concepts in ways that are easy to understand, introducing us to amazing humans he's met along his travels, and his conversational style makes this a joy to read.
I was delighted at the breadth of topics in the book from fish migration, to biking infrastructure, to foraging, to the ways that animals have been forced to adapt to cityscapes. There's a phenomenal narrative thread and interconnectedness to every single element. Rarely do I encounter such readable and propulsive non-fic!
I can't recommend this highly enough. If you're dismayed by sprawling metropolises, car-centricity, climate breakdown... and would like a snapshot of how things could be, check out this book.
My request to review this was approved by 4th Estate / William Collins on NetGalley.
May 13, 2026
One of the best non-fiction books I’ve read. Stories and intense visualisation interwoven with academic literature. Really great.
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August 5, 2026Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate for an eARC in exchange for an honest review
I've spent the last month slowly chipping away at this and I'm so glad I persevered. Because of the nature of this book, each chapter took on a different city and often an entirely different area of focus: from green tunnels in Medellin to Michelin star foraging restaurants in Copenhagen. And so many chapters were right up my street. I really believe that access to nature improves the human life, and I believe pretty strongly in natural burials, but some sections didn't tick all my boxes on a personal preference level. It's as if I were picking up a new book each time. My overall feelings are positive, I learnt a lot and this was very satisfying to make progress on. I think going forward I'll research some of the discussed topics in more depth!
I've spent the last month slowly chipping away at this and I'm so glad I persevered. Because of the nature of this book, each chapter took on a different city and often an entirely different area of focus: from green tunnels in Medellin to Michelin star foraging restaurants in Copenhagen. And so many chapters were right up my street. I really believe that access to nature improves the human life, and I believe pretty strongly in natural burials, but some sections didn't tick all my boxes on a personal preference level. It's as if I were picking up a new book each time. My overall feelings are positive, I learnt a lot and this was very satisfying to make progress on. I think going forward I'll research some of the discussed topics in more depth!
August 21, 2026
I must confess that I picked up this book expecting it to be focused on wildlife to be found in cities, birds and mammals so initially it was a bit disappointing.
The book is not about wildlife as such but rather about increasing green areas in the urban environments. As that is an informative, interesting read.
Took me a while to finish what with the intensity of travels recently. However it was one of the rare books that once picked up again was able to recreate and hold interest.
The book is not about wildlife as such but rather about increasing green areas in the urban environments. As that is an informative, interesting read.
Took me a while to finish what with the intensity of travels recently. However it was one of the rare books that once picked up again was able to recreate and hold interest.
May 18, 2026
It is frightening that already twentyfive years have passed since I was involved in sustainable cities. Since then I’ve seen glimmers of activity, but not taken much note of anything that seemed more than greenwash. Chris Fitch does a splendid job of not only bringing me up to date, but showing me there is hope.
This is a big book in every way. It is divided into digestible chunks, focussing on one city, and mostly one best practice example, in each of twelve chapters. To start I was sceptical. I know about best practice projects. The difficulty is getting them adopted into normal practice. And whilst we are not there yet, the author does a great job of picking up experiences from other cities tackling the same key issues — worldwide.
We go from fascinating things I’d not heard of like the Japanese city forests, to initiatives I knew of, like the Nairobi local ‘game reserve’ which essentially enables the average Nairobi family to appreciate ‘their’ wildlife living in relative harmony with humans. Relative, because the animals are free to leave, whereas the humans are essentially stuck in the city… and more arriving every day.
From beavers to foraging (I take a jaundiced view of foraging due to the stripping of Epping Forest fungi for posh restaurants leaving little food for the animals), walking city routes to light pollution, the author covers practically every aspect of living a more sustainable life in a city. Until we get to death — no, that’s covered too, with an excellent piece on the ecological burial or other disposal of your remains. And again, while one city provides the prime example, he explores practices and options in others. These are worldwide issues tackled on a global scale.
He even analysed, as I had been doing in my ‘yes,but’ mode, the key to these initiatives’ success. Inspirational leadership is key, but the ability to persuade those people with the agency to act becomes more essential. So does grassroots support. The serendipity of the right people in the right place at the right time. And ongoing success because the people are proud of, enjoy, and benefit from the results. Cities for their children to grow up in.
The big book is made bigger by an extensive reference section. You can find that reference to your own city you knew nothing about… you can point your elected representatives to a city just like yours…
Read this book, and spread the word. Take action, even if it is only to change your lightbulbs.
This is a big book in every way. It is divided into digestible chunks, focussing on one city, and mostly one best practice example, in each of twelve chapters. To start I was sceptical. I know about best practice projects. The difficulty is getting them adopted into normal practice. And whilst we are not there yet, the author does a great job of picking up experiences from other cities tackling the same key issues — worldwide.
We go from fascinating things I’d not heard of like the Japanese city forests, to initiatives I knew of, like the Nairobi local ‘game reserve’ which essentially enables the average Nairobi family to appreciate ‘their’ wildlife living in relative harmony with humans. Relative, because the animals are free to leave, whereas the humans are essentially stuck in the city… and more arriving every day.
From beavers to foraging (I take a jaundiced view of foraging due to the stripping of Epping Forest fungi for posh restaurants leaving little food for the animals), walking city routes to light pollution, the author covers practically every aspect of living a more sustainable life in a city. Until we get to death — no, that’s covered too, with an excellent piece on the ecological burial or other disposal of your remains. And again, while one city provides the prime example, he explores practices and options in others. These are worldwide issues tackled on a global scale.
He even analysed, as I had been doing in my ‘yes,but’ mode, the key to these initiatives’ success. Inspirational leadership is key, but the ability to persuade those people with the agency to act becomes more essential. So does grassroots support. The serendipity of the right people in the right place at the right time. And ongoing success because the people are proud of, enjoy, and benefit from the results. Cities for their children to grow up in.
The big book is made bigger by an extensive reference section. You can find that reference to your own city you knew nothing about… you can point your elected representatives to a city just like yours…
Read this book, and spread the word. Take action, even if it is only to change your lightbulbs.
July 16, 2025
Personal narrative meets facts and science
—
Covering a plethora of urgent subjects, this is a book with a split personality: on one hand a gosh-darn personal narrative from a very good writer on encounters with the natural world; and on the other all of the facts and figures that should make every thinking person sit up and take action. The problem is that it veers too much one way or the other, without any linking between the personal and subjective (the clothes his interviewees are wearing, his clear delight in encounters with a beaver or a kookaburra, for two, or even the casual details he throws in from his own colourful life) and the clinical and horrifying: the global proportion of livestock against wild animals in terms of Great Pyramids of Giza (ninety to three and a bit); the 7% of unfishable waters that Sydney anglers claim is against their rights to fish anything and everything and therefore no reason to impose a fishing exclusion zone near the harbour; and so on.
I want everyone to read this book, as it gives insight into the problems facing everyone (it’s a global book arranged city by city but often detouring to other places with similar issues) and to some of the inspired and, frankly, beautiful solutions that we and nature are coming up with to combat the climate emergency. Be aware that it is written in not only a warm and engaging style but also a factual and scientific one, and the two clash on the page, sometimes in a paragraph, without warning.
—
Covering a plethora of urgent subjects, this is a book with a split personality: on one hand a gosh-darn personal narrative from a very good writer on encounters with the natural world; and on the other all of the facts and figures that should make every thinking person sit up and take action. The problem is that it veers too much one way or the other, without any linking between the personal and subjective (the clothes his interviewees are wearing, his clear delight in encounters with a beaver or a kookaburra, for two, or even the casual details he throws in from his own colourful life) and the clinical and horrifying: the global proportion of livestock against wild animals in terms of Great Pyramids of Giza (ninety to three and a bit); the 7% of unfishable waters that Sydney anglers claim is against their rights to fish anything and everything and therefore no reason to impose a fishing exclusion zone near the harbour; and so on.
I want everyone to read this book, as it gives insight into the problems facing everyone (it’s a global book arranged city by city but often detouring to other places with similar issues) and to some of the inspired and, frankly, beautiful solutions that we and nature are coming up with to combat the climate emergency. Be aware that it is written in not only a warm and engaging style but also a factual and scientific one, and the two clash on the page, sometimes in a paragraph, without warning.
May 2, 2025
Each chapter of this book follows the author to a different world city - Barcelona, Medellin, Singapore - and explores how these cities are integrating green spaces and ecological concepts. On the face of the matter, I should have loved this book as it concerns a topic I am extremely interested in.
However, I felt the book did not earn its length and could easily have been slimmed down.
On a personal note, I found the author's style grating (sorry!). The book felt like it was trying to inhabit a space between narrative and traditional non-fiction and this was not successful. There was a lot of focus on the author's interactions with experts - fine, but I don't need to know about what they were wearing and every 'mm' and 'ahh' uttered. It felt a bit odd to me that this was written by a journalist; I was taught that quotes should have a purpose but the author tended to quote every single insignificant utterance and long chunks of speech conveying information that could have been written in a far more succinct and elegant manner. I spent most of the book distracted from the very interesting concepts being explored by the irritating style choices.
Thank you to William Collins and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.
However, I felt the book did not earn its length and could easily have been slimmed down.
On a personal note, I found the author's style grating (sorry!). The book felt like it was trying to inhabit a space between narrative and traditional non-fiction and this was not successful. There was a lot of focus on the author's interactions with experts - fine, but I don't need to know about what they were wearing and every 'mm' and 'ahh' uttered. It felt a bit odd to me that this was written by a journalist; I was taught that quotes should have a purpose but the author tended to quote every single insignificant utterance and long chunks of speech conveying information that could have been written in a far more succinct and elegant manner. I spent most of the book distracted from the very interesting concepts being explored by the irritating style choices.
Thank you to William Collins and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 28, 2025
This was an interesting book with a lot of food for thought. The only drawback I felt was that it was a little all over the place.
At its core, it talks of how green a given city can be but even within the focus of one chapter the author talks of a few other slightly connected cities which have had something positive to show.
Being green does not necessarily mean more tree cover. There are different approaches to what makes a city ‘wild’. The available resources due to location and population, as well as the political support plays a large part in making things the way they are. Also playing a part is the actual problem that is part of their history and the one a group of people set out to fix.
The author has covered a lot of ground and I was interested in some chapters more than others. I felt like the people who gave the author the tours got a little more description than I would have expected, but a couple of chapters in I got used to that style of narration.
There’s positivity in the book. It provides fodder for thought and will definitely encourage more action at ground level if read or discussed by people civically inclined.
I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience
At its core, it talks of how green a given city can be but even within the focus of one chapter the author talks of a few other slightly connected cities which have had something positive to show.
Being green does not necessarily mean more tree cover. There are different approaches to what makes a city ‘wild’. The available resources due to location and population, as well as the political support plays a large part in making things the way they are. Also playing a part is the actual problem that is part of their history and the one a group of people set out to fix.
The author has covered a lot of ground and I was interested in some chapters more than others. I felt like the people who gave the author the tours got a little more description than I would have expected, but a couple of chapters in I got used to that style of narration.
There’s positivity in the book. It provides fodder for thought and will definitely encourage more action at ground level if read or discussed by people civically inclined.
I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience
May 20, 2026
Wild Cities: Discovering New Ways of Living in the Modern Urban Jungle turned out to be one of the most hopeful books I have read in a while. Instead of treating cities as places permanently separated from nature, it shows how urban spaces can coexist with wildlife and greenery, creating healthier environments for people.
The examples were fascinating throughout. Tokyo’s tiny one-square-meter forests prove that even the smallest patches of intentional green space can have an impact. Medellín’s interconnected green corridors show how cities can cool temperatures while reconnecting ecosystems. Singapore’s plant-covered buildings almost make the skyline feel alive, while Nairobi’s willingness to preserve space for large animals feels increasingly rare in the modern world. Even Flagstaff’s efforts to fight light pollution stood out as a reminder that protecting nature sometimes means simply letting the night sky exist again.
What I appreciated most is that the book avoids empty optimism. These are real projects happening right now, which makes the ideas feel achievable instead of utopian. A genuinely fascinating look at how cities do not have to be concrete wastelands if people are willing to rethink how urban life works.
The examples were fascinating throughout. Tokyo’s tiny one-square-meter forests prove that even the smallest patches of intentional green space can have an impact. Medellín’s interconnected green corridors show how cities can cool temperatures while reconnecting ecosystems. Singapore’s plant-covered buildings almost make the skyline feel alive, while Nairobi’s willingness to preserve space for large animals feels increasingly rare in the modern world. Even Flagstaff’s efforts to fight light pollution stood out as a reminder that protecting nature sometimes means simply letting the night sky exist again.
What I appreciated most is that the book avoids empty optimism. These are real projects happening right now, which makes the ideas feel achievable instead of utopian. A genuinely fascinating look at how cities do not have to be concrete wastelands if people are willing to rethink how urban life works.
May 16, 2025
The importance of vegetation in cities. The book starts with tree-hugging in Tokyo, moving on to diverse cities including Nairobi, Medellin (Columbia), Sydney and Copenhagen, with mentions of London. (I can recommend the Sky Garden, overlooking the Thames and London Eye.) The author speaks to people out in the field trying to prevent more deforestation and make more green spaces in cities, vertical or horizontal. One of the problems is how to try and join up green spaces to make green corridors, so that particular animals and plants are less likely to die out and rivers and streams can flow freely. Fascinating and thought-provoking.
September 10, 2026
A must read for anyone interested in sustainable living and architecture.
Each chapter is a case study. It felt like boots on the ground journalism with a story being told through locals who directly contribute to the projects. I loved how different the examples were - from foraging in Copenhagen to forests in Tokyo and wildlife in Nairobi.
If anyone has suggestions for a similar book, please leave it in the comments! Thanks <3
Each chapter is a case study. It felt like boots on the ground journalism with a story being told through locals who directly contribute to the projects. I loved how different the examples were - from foraging in Copenhagen to forests in Tokyo and wildlife in Nairobi.
If anyone has suggestions for a similar book, please leave it in the comments! Thanks <3
February 19, 2026
Well written book addressing the movement of people in cities incorporating nature in to city living. It balances well between serious concerns in regards to climate crisis and what various people around the world are doing to bring nature closer to people to increase desire, awareness, and support for preserving flora and fauna of the world.
July 18, 2026
I'm inspired by the examples in this book on how we can retrofit and enhance nature in our cities, for the benefit of both the ecosystem and human well-being. Chris wrote rich descriptions of the people he met and places he visited, I'd now like to see this book turned into a documentary so I can see these places myself.
September 11, 2026
An interesting and well-divided non-fiction about the ways in which cities on all continents (except Antarctica) are promoting nature and encouraging their urban populations to connect with the natural environment.
October 4, 2025
Super interesting book with stories from modern cities where they have made progress in protecting nature, rewilding, or living more active / outdoor lives.
April 16, 2026
+ Positive
+ Wellr researched
+ Great storytelling
+ Inspiring
J.
+ Wellr researched
+ Great storytelling
+ Inspiring
J.
April 22, 2026
my attention span sucked too bad to finish 💔
May 30, 2026
Fascinating
June 10, 2025
This books uses cities from across the world as case studies on how we can rewild, enjoy nature and minimise the threat to other species. I found it fascinating, learning a lot about many places I hadn't visited, and getting a deeper insight into many cities that I know well.
As well as giving some hope that there is urgency about the state of nature in many parts of the world, I also got inspiration and tips on what I can do myself to support local nature. This was an enjoyable book that you can dip in and out of, and each chapter was fascinating.
Thanks to Chris Fitch, William Collins publishers and NetGalley, for an ARC in return for an honest review.
As well as giving some hope that there is urgency about the state of nature in many parts of the world, I also got inspiration and tips on what I can do myself to support local nature. This was an enjoyable book that you can dip in and out of, and each chapter was fascinating.
Thanks to Chris Fitch, William Collins publishers and NetGalley, for an ARC in return for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews