Moss Safari: Exploring the Secret Life in Moss

5th December 2025 

Andrew Chandler-Grevatt 
Pelagic Publishing, £24.99

In Moss Safari, Andrew Chandler-Grevatt reveals that a clump of moss is a vibrant ecosystem teeming with life. Armed with only a basic microscope, readers are invited on a hands-on journey of discovery, supported by up-to-date research. His idea of the ‘Big Five’ of moss ecosystems – rotifers, tardigrades, nematodes, mites and gastrotrichs – is a stroke of pedagogical brilliance: playful, memorable and deeply effective as a framing device. 

Everyone seems fascinated by tardigrades and their apparent indestructibility. The actual science is even more compelling – for instance, their ability to enter a state of suspended animation by forming a protective shell. However, Chandler-Grevatt makes it clear that the other members of the Big Five are just as extraordinary, each revealing their own strange and captivating adaptations. This is doubtless the closest many of us will come to encountering truly otherworldly species.

Informal yet precise, Moss Safari feels very much like a tutorial led by a passionate teacher whose deep expertise is matched only by their infectious enthusiasm. There is no over-polished imagery here – only lightly manipulated photos that mirror what readers can expect to see themselves.

This is popular science writing at its most engaging – informative without being too heavy; curious without being whimsical. What I appreciated most, though, was the book’s implicit message: that science doesn’t need a lab coat or expensive equipment. Curiosity, a bit of moss and a school-quality microscope are enough to start exploring. This is science made radically accessible.

For teachers Moss Safari is a pedagogical gift, brimming with practical applications, cross-curricular potential and a spirit of exploration. For students it offers empowerment – the realisation that a whole universe of resilient life can be explored within a drop of water squeezed from a bit of moss. For the rest of us it is a timely reminder that scientific wonder is always within reach, often hiding in plain sight.

In short, Moss Safari transforms the everyday into the extraordinary – and once you’ve read it, you’ll never look at a mossy wall or shady garden patch in the same way again.

Mike Follows