I first met Philip McKibbin at the Minding Animals International Conference in Mexico in 2018. I wasn’t aware of him then but was intrigued by the title of his talk, “Loving Justice and Non-Human Animals”, listed in the conference program. I was intrigued and decided to listen to what he had to say. Afterward, I congratulated him on his talk. We chatted briefly. I pointed out that we shared similar perspectives on animal ethics and related matters. And that was that.

Then, he read my book, Growl, and subsequently invited me to speak at a conference, “The Politics of Love“, he was co-organising with Max Harris at All Souls College Oxford in 2018. I spoke about animal rights in the context of a politics of love. Here, he invited me to think about collaborating with him on articles about our shared interests. Subsequently, we became long-distance friends (New Zealand and England respectively) via Skype and email and have published a couple of articles.  

It is only now (February 2020) that I have been able to catch up with reading Philip’s book Love Notes. I always knew that it was going to be a worthwhile read but I didn’t appreciate how persuasive and eloquent it would be. It’s a collection of short pieces that often overlap and intertwine. The writing style is conversational but elegant. 

I don’t want to say any more here as the most important thing I would like you to know is that I highly recommend this book. If your interests aren’t satisfied with how society’s values currently are and you want to be inspired by an alternative holistic and ethical way of thinking, then, you will not go wrong by giving this book a try.