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Foreword by Stanley Johnson
About Stanley Johnson
Stanley Johnson is a renowned environmentalist, author, and former MEP who helped lay the foundations for the United Nations’ and Europe’s environmental policy.
As Head of the European Commission’s Prevention of Pollution division and later Director of Energy Policy, his work has shaped decades of global environmental action. He has published extensively on conservation and sustainability, from The Politics of Environment to Antarctica: The Last Great Wilderness. Recognised worldwide, Stanley has received the Greenpeace Prize for Outstanding Services to the Environment, the RSPB Medal for Services to Nature Conservation, and WWF’s prestigious Leaders of the Living Planet Award, among many others.
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The Foreword
When I first heard about Ellie Ment and the Material Matter, I expected a story about science, adventure, and perhaps a little mischief. What I didn’t expect was to be drawn into a world so cleverly woven with the very real challenges facing our planet – and to be laughing along the way.
In my years working on environmental protection – whether drafting the original EU Habitats Directive or helping establish the European Commission’s first Environmental Action Programme – I’ve learned that solutions rarely come from the top down. They often begin with curiosity. With a question. Sometimes, with a young person who simply refuses to accept “that’s just the way it is.”
Ellie Ment is one of those people. Bold, brilliant, and mercifully imperfect, she doesn’t wait for permission to investigate. She’s clever, chaotic, and completely unafraid to challenge the grown-ups. And what unfolds in this story is nothing short of exhilarating.
What makes this book truly stand out is how it handles one of the most complex tensions I’ve seen throughout my career: the pull between idealism and pragmatism. These themes – so central to environmental action – shine here through the eyes of young characters who must navigate what is right, what is possible, and what is simply necessary.
This book pulls off something quite remarkable. It makes science genuinely exciting, the problems facing our world accessible, and environmental responsibility fun. Not through lectures, but through story. Through character. Through a wonderfully madcap blend of quantum physics, plastic waste, loyalty, rebellion – and jam jars. It’s exactly the kind of edutainment the Clean Planet Foundation exists to champion: a way to educate while inspiring action, curiosity, and courage in the next generation.
Whether you love science, art, sport, or just a cracking good adventure, Ellie Ment and the Material Matter has something for you. More than that – it invites you in. To question. To think. And to believe that change, even on the biggest problems we face, might just start with someone like you.
I, for one, can’t wait to see what Ellie does next.
And I know you will too.
- Stanley Johnson
Now also available as a major audiobook release, read by JENNIFER SAUNDERS
- LoveReadingUK
More than just a book series, this is a universe of science, adventure, and imagination. Experience it through music with The Ellie Ment Overture, an original orchestral score composed by Joe Hogan—capturing the spirit, emotion, and momentum of Ellie’s journey.
