The writer Dan Richards, who has been on tour recently promoting Climbing Days, the reissued 1935 memoir of his great aunt, Dorothy Pilley, has a book of his own coming out next March. In Overnight: Journeys, Conversation and Stories After Dark (Canongate), he offers what his publisher says is a “wide-ranging exploration” of the world at night that “was born in part from Dan’s own childhood fear of the darkness and subsequent bouts of insomnia. It is the product of four years of travel, interviews and research: from the high stakes of a helicopter search-and-rescue team to the deliriously sleepless nights of young parents, from Shetland to Finland and France, hospital beds to racetracks, it’s an attempt to reclaim the night – to find joy and warmth in darkness – but also to explore those parts of our society that are often out of view and out of mind.”

Nominations for the Richard Jefferies Award for the best book of nature writing published in 2024 are open until December 1. Titles nominated so far include Cairn by Kathleen Jamie, The Accidental Garden by Richard Mabey and Wayfarer by Phoebe Smith. The judges welcome “writing that invites reflection on the sense of place that is so strong in Jefferies’ works”.

In The New York Times, in the latest contribution to the “Read Your Way Around The World” series, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto recommends books “that illuminate the… rich history and storytelling spirit” of Hawaii. In the travel pages of the same paper, the critic Dwight Garner reports on a literary pilgrimage he made with his wife (a writer) to Dublin to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.