<i>This is How the Change Begins</i> is a small but powerful collection of six poems by Nicola Davies. Best known as a prolific author of children’s books, Davies takes the simplicity and directness of writing for children and tackles the very real and very adult problem of climate change. What results is an inspired, beautifully designed book that doesn’t shy away from a very clear message.

Published to coincide with UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), this is both aimed at our leaders and is also a book for all of us. ‘It’s a Choice’ is a poem that Davies has directed at Prime Minister Boris Johnson when reading publicly, for example, but it’s a poem for us all:

‘It isn’t a done deal.
We don’t have to give up hope.
We can change our own behaviour,
we can throw ourselves a rope’

Climate change is a major modern crisis but, Davies writes, we still have the power to choose how we act. The implication is that whether that is as a world leader at a global conference, or as individuals in our lifestyle and consumption decisions, there is still room for change. In this sense, this is both a realistic collection addressing the severity of the issue, and one that leaves room for optimism and change.

The ‘change’ that’s featured in this book is a double-sided coin. The slow generational change in animal life that’s described in ‘New Normal’ is stark and terrifying, giving a very real picture of what the effect of climate change looks like on a hyper-local level to the wildlife that surrounds Davies. However, the change in the titular ‘This is How the Change Begins’ is similarly descriptive of climate change, but morphs into positive change that we all have the power to make:

‘We are but drops of water,
we are but grains of sand,
but together we’re an ocean
we can make a promised land!’

Davies is clear and direct in her poetry and her message, and it’s refreshing to read about such a dark subject with such lightness and optimism. As she writes in her introduction, ‘I know that poems alone won’t bring about the changes we need right now. But imagination, dreams and the words that carry them are a start. That is how the change begins.’ She is, of course, absolutely right, and that’s why this is a book that shouldn’t be overlooked.

- Liam Nolan @ www.gwales.com,