‘A history of humanity without a history of our imaginations is only a partial one . . .’

We have always created and destroyed monsters. They give form to what we don’t wish to know or understand; to our anxieties and irrational terrors. They have helped us manage the extraordinary complexity of our minds and deal with the challenges of being human. In Enchanted Creatures, Natalie Lawrence delves into the dark histories of creatures we have imagined over 15,000 years of history: from strange beasts carved in Palaeolithic caves and hybrid snake women, to deep-sea leviathans and apocalyptic dino-monsters. She reveals what lies beneath the monstrous menagerie that has shaped our minds, our societies and how we see our place in nature. Understanding our monsters allows us to understand ourselves, perhaps the most important quest there is.

‘Wide-ranging and full of passion for the pernicious and downright peculiar monsters we have dreamed up over thousands of years. It’s scary what the mind can conjure.’ – Daisy Dunn, author of In The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny and The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World through the Women Who Shaped It

‘A thrilling, compellingly readable account of the biology of the creatures that squirm, crawl, gallop and prowl through your subconscious. Read it to know what you really are.’ – Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast, Being a Human and Cry of the Wild 

‘Enchanted Creatures plumbs the depths of science, mythology, art and human psychology, inviting us to question everything we know about the nature of chaos and control, the monsters lurking in the darkness, in broad daylight and within our own minds. It expertly weaves together the threads of academia with spellbinding storytelling and beautiful illustrations. This is a book to read with the lights on.’ – Tiffany Francis Baker, author of The Bridleway

‘Beautifully written, completely engaging and dazzlingly wide-ranging, Enchanted Creatures is underpinned by great intellectual brilliance and a masterful command of detail and theory’ – Julia Lovell, author of Maoism: A Global History 

‘Each of us carries within us a feared or favourite monster from our childhood, whether the beast under the bed or the shadow of a predator long since lost from the literal world. In her powerful debut, Lawrence surfaces these imaginative and real creatures, and beautifully clarifies their importance to us. In so doing, she confronts us with existential anxieties that resonate in an age of climate grief, but also she also shows us the hope to be found glinting between the scales.’ – Melanie Challenger, author of How to be Animal