By examining the diverse perceptual capacities of our fellow creatures, Sentient leads us to perceive ourselves in a new, organic context.

Higgins keeps the lay reader engaged with her lyrical and lucid style, despite describing complex science (often at the molecular level), and skilfully incorporates individual human stories.

Higgins skilfully connects these tales from the natural world to the experiences of people with an exceptional sensory repertoire. Through their experiences we grasp how much can be learned from other animals, and how your sensory reality may be quite distinct from mine.

For all that it’s stuffed with entertaining oddities, Sentient is not a book about oddities, and Higgins’s argument, though colourful, is rigorous and focused. She leads us to adopt an entirely unfamiliar way of thinking about the senses..

Higgins highlights intriguing animals with remarkable sensory receptors that offer new perspectives on human senses, which, she explains, number far more than the traditional five.

... fascinating, well-documented.

In an authoritative and captivating tone, Higgins provides numerous entertaining lessons regarding how information gained from animals can be applied to humans.

... eminently entertaining.