Wilderness: The Most Sensational Natural Places on Earth is an inviting coffee table book that is part travel inspiration, part lounge chair eye-candy, part battle cry. There are 40 destinations that take you to some of the most sensational wilderness areas around the world in all their full-blown magnificence.

The wildernesses reference many types of natural habitats, from diverse land-based environments to oceans and rivers, all remarkable, and threatened, in similar ways. The word 'wilderness' itself conjures images constantly looping on our social media feeds: towering forests, sparkling streams, the sun's shadow falling across a desert dune, polar bear cubs walking across a tundra. The fact that our popular culture constantly draws us to these elusive destinations says much about their place in our psyche.

Our increasingly urban lives have made this call to the wild louder and stronger. And as the population emerges from a modern-age global catastrophe, a new reality dawns: a truth-telling that says the planet's greatest commodity is not its iron ore or petroleum. It's our wilderness, the pockets of the planet where, by definition, we humans have been mostly absent. These wildernesses that need to be protected have extraordinary wildlife, ecology and biodiversity. Whether you want to armchair travel or pack your bags, the destinations in the book include information about conservation and regeneration alongside opportunities for travellers to tread more lightly while travelling to the world's wild places.

From the wild grasslands of the Mongolian Steppe to the incredible biodiversity of the Galápagos Islands, Penny demonstrates how to travel consciously and sustainably to these destinations. While may argue that the best way to preserve these incredible places is by not travelling there at all, many of the communities in these wildernesses rely on tourism for their future. The income derived from visitors assists in furthering conservation efforts, funding research and spreading awareness, particularly where wildlife is concerned.

Complete with stunning photography, Wilderness will take the reader on a journey of wanderlust to the world's most wild and out-there places.

About the author

Penny Watson is a traveller, writer and storyteller. Her award-winning words about people, places, food, and adventures in the wild have found a home in a ream of magazines, newspapers and digital spaces in Australia and around the globe. Penny's books include Slow Travel and Ultimate Campsites: Australia. Penny is a member of both the British Guild of Travel Writers and Australian Society of Travel Writers. In 2021, she took her own slow travel advice and moved from her hometown of Melbourne, Australia to Bali in Indonesia. She lives there with her amazing partner Phil and their two exceptional children, Digby and Etienne.

For more information, interviews or extracts, please contact Marilla Marshall Sloan at Hardie Grant Explore E: MarillaMarshallSloan@hardiegrant.com T: (03) 8520 6716 M: 0413 766 389