The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

By: Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Narrated by: Kate Handford

Bloomsbury presents The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey read by Kate Handford

'Fabulous, a triumph, and it will remain a favourite forever.' CHRIS PACKHAM
'A miniature masterpiece.' THE INDEPENDENT
'Charming and absorbing.' THE TIMES

In celebration of its fifteen year anniversary, and including a new foreword by Helen Macdonald, this multi-award winning account of a close encounter with nature will delight readers everywhere.

While an illness keeps her bedridden, Elisabeth Tova Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence in a flowerpot alongside her bed. She enters the rhythm of life of this mysterious creature, and comes to a greater understanding of her own confined place in the world. In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, she shares the inspiring and intimate story of her connection with Neohelix albolabris – a common woodland snail.

Intrigued by the snail’s world – from its strange anatomy to its mysterious courtship activities – she becomes a fascinated and amused observer of the snail’s curious life. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating reveals how much of the natural world we overlook in our busy daily lives, while affirming the extraordinary life of even the tiniest of species.

A remarkable journey of survival and resilience, this beautiful book shows how a small part of the natural world can illuminate our own human existence and deepen our appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.

©2025 Elisabeth Tova Bailey (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

A little gem … I commend [this] book to anyone who has ever had to spend more than a day in bed. (Melanie Reid)

Lyrical, universal, deeply felt, and with an enormously generous soul, the gently told story grants readers a heightened appreciation for the ever-shrinking, ever-fascinating, secretive parts of our unkempt world. (Alexandra Fuller)

An astonishing book that portrays a woman who’s incapacitated through illness; she’s lying in bed, can’t move, and someone brings her a flower in a pot and on it is a snail. It’s about her relationship with that snail. The narrative content is limited, but what she does with it is incredible. (Chris Packham)

The writing [is] exquisitely tender and so full of insight. I will never look at a snail again in the same light. (Countess Margaret of Mar, Founder of Forward-ME)

A beautiful little book which is written with a real gentleness and is very enjoyable to read. (Mark Kurlansky, author and journalist)