Shortlisted for the 2025 Womens Prize for non-fiction, marine biologist Helen Scales’ exploration of the changing nature of our oceans, drawing on 20 years of research, attempts to answer the question of whether it’s possible to be hopeful about the future of the blue planet. “I set out to tread a path that combines pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will,” she writes. “I don’t want to shy away from the troubles, and at the same time I want readers to hope for, and demand, a better future.” The result is a lucid, beautifully-written and highly informed call to save the oceans upon which human life depends.