Describing encounters – and missed encounters – with the wildlife that surrounds the Teifi River in west Wales, Love Letters on the River is a lyrical, honest and tender tribute to the many creatures that bring joy to Carly Holmes’ life simply by existing.

A self-proclaimed working-class nature lover, Holmes has from a young age been in thrall to the creatures that live around us. This collection of essays – beautifully illustrated by local artist Guy Manning – are each of them love letters to the Teifi valley and to the river that winds through Carly’s days. The wild animals are its very heart and soul: the badgers who visit nightly for peanuts; the juvenile osprey who learned to fish on the estuary across the lane; the young jackdaw she nurtured until it was healthy enough to ignore her whenever she went into the garden; the cuckoos she discovered in flagrante one afternoon on a lockdown walk.

At a time that demands of us big shifts in our relationship to the natural world, Love Letters on the River is a warming reminder that any such changes begin with small acts of care, attention and love.