Removing humans from what is now the exclusion zone around the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor has allowed wildlife to return, researchers say.

They say a long-term census of mammals in the area has shown that wildlife numbers are likely to be "much higher than they were before the accident".
Professor Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth led the study, published in the journal Current Biology.
He stressed that this "does not mean that radiation is good for wildlife".
"It's just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting, farming, and forestry, are a lot worse," Prof Smith said.
With the help of with colleagues from the Polesky State Radioecological Reserve in Belarus, the researchers examined data from aerial surveys that counted large mammals including roe deer, elk, wild boar and wolves.
They also carried out tracking studies in the winter - using footprints in snow to calculate the numbers of different mammal species. And measuring the levels of radioactive contamination in those tracks.
"The numbers of animals we see in Chernobyl is similar to the populations in uncontaminated nature reserves," Prof Smith said.
The number of wolves was particularly striking - up to seven times higher than in nearby nature reserves of a comparable size. Prof Smith attributed this to the lack of hunting in the exclusion zone.
A 30km exclusion zone now surrounds the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant. And Prof Smith says the picture from this study reveals what happens in terms of wildlife conservation "when you take humans out of the picture".
But, he said, the study did not look at the health effects of radiation on individual animals.
That is something that Prof Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, has spent many years trying to unpick in his studies of wildlife - particularly bird populations - in the exclusion zone.
Prof Mousseau said the study was a "very positive move forward in conducting research concerning the potential health and environmental impacts of nuclear accidents".
"Much more research on this is desperately needed," he added.
But Prof Mousseau is also troubled by "the characterisation that Chernobyl and the surrounding area is teeming with wildlife".
"This study only applies to large mammals under hunting pressure, rather than the vast majority of animals - most birds, small mammals, and insects - that are not directly influenced by human habitation," he told BBC News.
In their study of mammal tracks, however, Prof Smith and his colleagues did compare the abundance of animals in different areas of the exclusion zone. They found that more contaminated areas had just as many animals as less contaminated sites.
Prof Mousseau said that the study simply showed that, "if left unchecked, some populations of animals will grow exponentially and eventually overpopulate a region".
"There is no evidence that the animals of Chernobyl are achieving the levels of population growth that are frequently seen in other regions where they are protected from predation or hunting," he added.


A dog is "lucky to be alive" after it was discovered "dumped" over a six foot fence, surrounded by "frozen solid faeces", the RSPCA has said.

The female spaniel was found by an off-duty policeman in West Malling, Kent, on Wednesday morning.
The charity said the dog - thought to be a springer or cocker spaniel - had been thrown into an enclosed gateway to a designated dog walking field.
It believed the pup, which has a docked tail, was left the night before.
RSPCA inspector Rosie Russon said: "This poor pup is lucky to be alive.  When she was found, there was frozen solid faeces on the floor next to her.
"How she survived in such freezing conditions, I don't know."
The dog is receiving treatment for a skin condition and sore eye at the charity's centre in Chobham, Surrey.
Ms Russon said that after a 14-day abandonment notice ends and she is fully recovered, the team will find her a new home.
She added: "It's outrageous that somebody thought this was an appropriate way to dump their dog. It was an extremely cruel thing to do."
The charity is keen to hear from anyone who may have information.


Australia's biggest mortgage lender has been accused of massive breaches of anti-money laundering laws.

The country's financial intelligence agency launched proceedings on Thursday against Commonwealth Bank for 53,700 alleged breaches.
The proceedings relate to the bank's intelligent deposit machines (IDMs), which were allegedly used by criminal syndicates to launder money.
The bank could face huge financial penalties over the breaches.
The Australian Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) said the machines facilitated anonymous cash deposits, because the cardholder's details are not known to Commonwealth Bank unless he or she is a customer.
The machines can accept up to 20,000 Australian dollars (Â£11,976; $15,845) per cash transaction and there is no limit on the number of daily transactions.
The machines count the deposits and instantly credit them to the nominated account, making them available for immediate transfer domestically or overseas.
Austrac says that between 2012 and 2015, Commonwealth Bank consistently failed to meet deadlines to report cash transactions of more than 10,000 Australian dollars or more.
These 53,506 transactions had a total value of about 624.7m Australian dollars.
The agency accused the bank of failing to carry out a money-laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment before it rolled out the machines in 2012, and failing to properly monitor accounts that might have used the machines.
The bank faces a maximum penalty of 18m Australian dollars for each of the 53,700 alleged breaches.
Austrac also alleged the Commonwealth Bank failed to report suspicious matters either on time or at all involving transactions totalling more than 77m Australian dollars.
The suspicious matters involved five criminal syndicates, including two which were allegedly laundering the proceeds of drug money.
Another was a so-called "cuckoo smurfing" operation, which is a form of money laundering that makes a cross-border transaction unnecessary to move money overseas.
Austrac says the bank failed to monitor some accounts even after it became aware of money-laundering concerns.
The bank said it was reviewing the nature of the proceedings.
Commonwealth Bank said it had been in discussions with Austrac for an extended period and had cooperated fully with their requests.
The bank said it reports over four million transactions to Austrac every year in an effort to combat suspicious activity, and had invested more than 230m Australian dollars in its anti-money laundering processes and systems.


Theresa May will present Donald Trump with a traditional Scottish cup of friendship when she meets him in the White House on Friday.

The gift of an engraved quaich reflects the US President's Scottish ancestry, as the son of Mary Anne MacLeod from the Isle of Lewis.
The two-handled drinking bowls have been exchanged by Highland clan chiefs for centuries.
It is a token of hospitality and a symbol of kinship.
The cup's two handles are intended to signify trust on the part of the giver and the receiver.
The prime minister will also present First Lady Melania Trump with a hamper of produce from her country residence Chequers, including apple juice, damson jam and marmalade, as well as Bakewell tarts and cranberry and white chocolate "shorties".
Mrs May will be the first world leader to hold face-to-face talks with President Trump in the White House.
Post-Brexit trade opportunities, security and intelligence co-operation and the future of Nato are likely to feature significantly in the talks.
Mrs May has said her goal is to build on the historic relationship between the two nations, underpinned by their shared values and common interests.
But she has said she "won't be afraid" to speak candidly to Mr Trump on matters where they disagree, having criticised remarks the businessman has made in the past about women and Muslims.
The shallow, one or two-handed wooden bowls were traditionally used in Scotland from the 17th Century as drinking cups.
The English and US colonial versions were called porringers, while northern Sweden had its kuksa.
Now Scottish quaichs are most commonly made from silver and handed out as competition prizes or gifts.
Fishermen also use them to toast the opening of the new salmon season every year by tipping whisky from the quaich into the river.
They have come to symbolise love and friendship and were used at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow to promote that message.
A special commemorative quaich was presented to every medal winner, along with their gold, silver or bronze.
Designer Paul Hodgkiss said the a quaich was an ideal symbol of Scottish hospitality.
One of the most famous quaichs is the Waterloo Tree Quaich, which is in the home of great Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott.
The rare piece is made from silver gilt and elm wood that was cut from a tree at the Waterloo battlefield.
The Duke of Wellington directed his troops from a position under the tree in 1815 and it subsequently became a target for souvenir hunters.
The quaich dates from 1824 and was made by Joseph Angell of London.
It is engraved with Scott's motto, "Watch Well".
Roddy Martine, editor of Scotch whisky industry magazine the Keeper of the Quaich, said it was not important that President Trump was teetotal.
He said the quaich was a gesture of friendship and did not need to be used for drinking whisky.
"It is a loving cup," he said.
"They began to formalise in the 17th Century. Highlanders could carry them around attached to their belts or they could put them in their sporran.
"It is a communal cup essentially. People didn't have glasses or tumblers in those days. They all drank out of the same cup."
He said: "You can drink anything out of a quaich. It is basically to carry liquid. It doesn't have to be whisky."
Mr Martine added: "It is a very canny gift, reflecting Mr Trump's Scottish heritage."


Chelsea have sacked Jose Mourinho seven months after he led them to the Premier League title.

The Portuguese manager took charge of the club in 2013 for the second time.
Last season Chelsea finished as Premier League champions and also won the League Cup.
But had a bad start to their defence, losing nine of their 16 league games so far this season.
Mourinho's final match was Monday's 2-1 defeat at leaders Leicester City.
Pep Guardiola, Guus Hiddink, Brendan Rodgers and Juande Ramos have all been rumoured to be in the running to take over at the club.


An Alaskan family has added online controls to the Christmas lights adorning their home.

Via a webpage visitors can control lights around windows, railings and doors as well as a Christmas tree in the house's garden.
The page is proving popular with hundreds of people every minute taking the chance to use the page to control the 11 different lights.
Live images of the light show are also being regularly uploaded to the web.
Ken and Rebecca-Ellen Woods of Fairbanks, Alaska started putting their lights online several years ago but this year the control system got a big upgrade.
Mr Woods, who works in IT, has built a dedicated computer-controlled switching box that has ports for every set of lights affixed to their home.
The live feed of the changing display shows lights blinking on and off at all times of day. Mr Woods told ABC News that he had got used to the constantly changing display. He added that it had got easier to live with once they only allowed lights on the exterior of the house to be controlled remotely.
There are no other houses near to the Woods household so there are no neighbours to complain about the flashing display.
This year the bill to run the hardware underpinning the light system looks set to reach more than $400 (Â£275) as millions of people take the chance to fiddle with the decorations over the Christmas period.


Bookmakers have suspended bets on the Queen announcing her abdication during her Christmas message this year.

They say an "unusual amount" of people online have put money on Her Majesty giving up the throne and handing it down to a younger generation.
Six people - within 10 minutes - waged a bet on it today.
There have been similar bets placed before but it's the fact these recent ones were made in "quick succession" which "set alarm bells ringing".
Buckingham Palace told Newsbeat: "We would not directly comment on a bookmaker's work."
But Newsbeat has been told the chances of a Christmas day abdication are unlikely - here's why:
The Palace suggested that we take a look at some of the speeches the Queen has given.
On her 21st birthday when she was still a princess she gave a radio broadcast to the Commonwealth.
She said: "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."
Then during the Coronation in 1953 she made a promise to God to govern the countries she's head of state for - a promise which she said she would "perform and keep. So help me God."
Sorry to spoil it for you but the Queen's Christmas speech isn't live and will have been recorded in front of other people.
It's unlikely that the Royal Household would risk including something as big as an abdication within the speech for fear that the information may be leaked before it is officially announced to the public.
Grant Harold, former butler to Prince Charles and the Royal Household, doesn't believe she'll do it.
Speaking to Newsbeat he says: "She's very much the old school - she's taken on this responsibility and I think she means what she's said in her speeches.
"I wouldn't have thought she would change her mind. She's got no reason to change. She's still got the support of the Duke of Edinburgh backing her all the way.
"I know she's cutting back in duties but I think she'll stay until the sad day when her life comes to an end. She sees it as her duty to carry on to the day she dies."
There's only been one occasion that a British monarch has abdicated and that was the Queen's uncle in 1936.
He wanted to marry Wallis Simpson but because she was a divorcee he wasn't allowed.
As the British monarch he was also head of the Church of England and they didn't permit the remarriage of divorced people until 2002.
He chose love over being King Edward VIII. The throne then passed to his younger brother, the Queen's dad, King George VI.
It caused a lot of controversy at the time and the country went into a state of panic.
Other monarchies in Europe have abdicated the throne without much of a fuss.
Earlier this year, King Juan Carlos of Spain stood down for personal reasons. He's been suffering ill-health for the past couple of years.
His son, the now King Felipe, took over his duties. It was the third time in 18 months that a king or queen in Europe stepped down.
It's become a bit of a tradition in the Netherlands to abdicate when you feel you've had enough.
The past three Dutch monarchs - all queens - have all chosen to step down from the job.
Last year Queen Beatrix handed over the ceremonial power to her son - Willem-Alexander.
Her mother Juliana resigned the throne in 1980 on her 71st birthday, and her grandmother Wilhelmina abdicated in 1948 at the age of 68.
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A man who broke a bird's leg by hitting it with an umbrella has been fined £600.

William McMahon, 68, from Kirkcaldy, was sentenced at the town's sheriff court on Monday.
McMahon was found guilty of intentionally or recklessly injuring a fledgling gull contrary to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in August.
It follows an investigation by the Scottish SPCA. The animal charity welcomed the fine.
John Chisholm, of the Scottish SPCA, said: "McMahon was witnessed taking a large golf umbrella out the boot of his car and proceeding towards the gull chick, which was in his garden.
"When the bird ran into the next garden, McMahon was seen leaning over the fence and striking it with the umbrella.
"The gull was clearly injured and concerned locals put it in a box before contacting us for help."
He added: "We took the bird to our National Wildlife Rescue Centre where it was found to have a broken leg.
"Sadly, it was in a great deal of pain due to the severity of the fracture and had to be put to sleep to end any further suffering.
"This was a deliberate and callous act of animal cruelty against a defenceless young bird and we welcome McMahon's conviction."


Andy Murray, Johanna Konta and Rafael Nadal were among those frustrated on Wednesday as rain prevented play at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

Defending champion Murray was scheduled to play Italy's Fabio Fognini in the last 16, while 2008 winner Rafael Nadal was set to face France's Gilles Simon.
British number one Konta saw her quarter-final against Germany's Angelique Kerber postponed.
Konta and Jamie Murray had been due to start their mixed doubles campaign.
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Somalia's interim government has denied allegations of corruption contained in a leaked UN report.

It alleged that around 70% of money intended for development and reconstruction in a country racked by 20 years of war was unaccounted for.
A statement from the prime minister's office said the allegations were "absolutely and demonstrably false".
The UN-backed government's mandate expires next month when it is due to hand over to an elected president.
The Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective central government since 1991 and has witnessed near constant fighting between rival factions ever since - a situation that has allowed piracy and lawlessness to flourish.
"The systematic misappropriation, embezzlement and outright theft of public resources have essentially become a system of governance,"
          the leaked report by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia, published by the Somalia Report website, said
.
Out of every $10 (Â£6) received by the transitional government between 2009 and 2010, $7 "never made it into state coffers", the report says.
"Nothing gets done in this government without someone asking the question: 'Maxaa igu jiraa (What's in it for me)?'" a senior official involved in the interim government's finances is quoted as telling the UN monitoring group.
Somalia's Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said that if some of the accusations contained in the report were not retracted, it "could result in [a] defamation and libel lawsuit".
"The PMO [prime minister's office] takes great exception to the careless and irresponsible publication of false reports that can create wrong impressions and perceptions thereby misleading the Somali people," the Somali government statement said.
In May, a separate report by the World Bank also found that 68% of government revenues from 2009 to 2010 went missing.
Ethiopian troops, pro-government militias and the nearly 18,000-strong African Union force - which has US and European funding - have helped the UN-backed interim government recently expand its control outside the capital, Mogadishu.
But much of the country is still controlled by the Islamist al-Shabab group, which joined al-Qaeda earlier in the year.
The group still manages to carry out attacks in Mogadishu - the latest on Monday when an MP, Mohamed Abdinur Garweyne, was killed in a car bomb blast outside a hotel.
Mr Garweyne, a former trade minister in the interim government, was a close ally of the president and an important and respected Islamist figure confronting al-Shabab.
Disparate factions in Somalia have agreed to elect a new president, ending the transitional period and the mandate of the UN-backed government, by 20 August.
The UN Monitoring Group report warned that the successful transfer of power might be hijacked by some politicians, which could revive al-Shabab's fortunes.
"While such 'spoiler' behaviour is partly an expression of legitimate political competition, it is also symptomatic of pervasive corruption," the report said.
"Since the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, successive generations of Somali leaders have engaged in corrosive political and economic practices that have aggravated the conflict and helped thwart the restoration of peace and security in the country."


Tributes have been paid to a man who died after being assaulted outside a nightclub in Gwynedd.

Henry Ayabowei, known as Henry Esin, was found outside Peep in Bangor by police just before 02:00 BST on Saturday.
He was taken to hospital, but died on Sunday morning.
Llanfairpwll football club said Mr Ayabowei was a "true gentleman in every sense".
The 27-year-old father of two from the Llangefni area played football for a number of clubs in the Anglesey region.
The club said: "It is with great regret that we have just heard the tragic news that Henry 'Romeo' Esin has passed away as a result of the injuries received.
"We offer Henry's family and friends our sincerest condolences at this most heartbreaking time.
"Gone but never forgotten, a true gentleman in every sense."
In a tweet the nightclub said: "We wish to offer our sincere condolences to the family of the deceased who was a customer of ours. Our thoughts are with them at this tragic time."
Floral tributes to Mr Ayabowei have been left outside the nightclub and a fundraising appeal for his family has been started.
A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.


Portsmouth players Michael Doyle and Christian Burgess have apologised for their involvement in a "dressing room altercation" on Saturday.

The pair were both substituted during the interval of Pompey's 2-1 defeat by Stevenage at Fratton Park.
Both players have agreed to make donations to the club's academy and community scheme by way of an apology.
In a statement, Portsmouth said they now consider the matter closed following an internal investigation.
"At half-time on Saturday, Michael and I engaged in a heated discussion that unfortunately escalated to an unacceptable point that we both regret," centre-back Burgess said.
"Our desire to win clearly crossed a line and our differences were quickly resolved, even before the end of the game."
Midfielder Doyle, who is also the club's captain, admitted he could not "undo what has been done".
He said: "I can assure everyone that this incident will only serve to strengthen my and the team's resolve to deliver on the pitch.
"I am, and will continue to be, totally committed to this football club."


A council has been accused of double standards for allowing a stage of a major cycle race to start in a town centre where cyclists have been banned.

Mansfield District Council stopped people riding around the market place to combat "anti-social" cycling.
However, it said "responsible" cyclists were welcome in the same place for the Tour of Britain on 6 September.
Campaign group Cycling UK said Mansfield hosting the race was illogical.
The group is currently supporting six cyclists who are challenging the council over a public spaces protection order (PSPO), issued a year ago, which prohibits people from cycling in the pedestrianised market place area.
Anyone who fails to dismount when asked could be fined.
Cycling UK spokesman Duncan Dollimore said: "They are marketing the town as cycle friendly, but not to people who want to shop there.
"We would never defend cycling anti-social behaviour, but why not deal with those being stupid and not responsible cyclists.
"They are effectively saying cycling is anti-social."
He also criticised the council's own promotional video showing a cyclist riding through areas which are prohibited.
In a statement, Mansfield District Council said it welcomed responsible cyclists to the town to view the race, but with care and consideration.
Riders have been encouraged to dismount, but "normal" rules concerning the PSPO will not be in operation for the "special event".
Mansfield's mayor Kate Allsop said: "This is about safety. This event will be properly monitored and managed.
"What we don't want is people dashing through the town centre on their bikes frightening or upsetting people.
"This is a special event and it would have been a dreadful shame if we were so inflexible that we would not host this amazing opportunity."


The trial of a Dublin teenager held in an Egyptian prison for almost two years has been adjourned until March.

Ibrahim Halawa, the son of the most senior Muslim cleric in the Republic of Ireland, was arrested during a siege on the Al-Fath mosque in Cairo in 2013.
The mass trial of Mr Halawa and more than 400 others began in March 2015, after being postponed five times since his arrest.
The 20-year-old could face the death penalty if he is convicted.
Mr Halawa was on a family holiday to his parents' homeland when he and three of his sisters were arrested by Egyptian security forces during a crackdown on protests in the country's capital.
He was 17 at the time.
His family said he had taken refuge in the building during violent clashes between supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi and the security forces.
His sisters were allowed to return to Dublin in November 2013.
The Republic's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, told RTE the adjournment is "a matter of serious concern". He said Ireland's ambassador in Egypt attended court and spoke with members of Mr Halawa's family.
The minister said the Department of Foreign Affairs is maintaining close and regular contact with Mr Halawa, as well as his family and Egyptian team.
Amnesty International has said it remains concerned for Mr Halawa's well being, and it has reiterated its call for his release.
It is the twelfth time legal proceedings have been adjourned since 2013.


World number one Mark Selby said he wanted to "shut the critics up" after beating Ronnie O'Sullivan in a high-quality UK Championship final.

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The 33-year-old world champion made three century breaks and six further half-centuries to win 10-7 and claim the title for the second time in York.
But his gritty style of play has often been questioned by viewers and pundits, who claim he is too slow and boring.
"With the criticism I get, it inspires me even more," he told BBC Sport.
"It makes me want to try harder."
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Selby became only the sixth player to win both the World and UK titles in the same year, and only the sixth player to twice complete the Triple Crown - which also includes the Masters.
The Leicester man has now won 10 ranking titles, taking him into joint-eighth position alongside Jimmy White.
Having gone 6-2 ahead in the first session, which included two frames lasting over half an hour, he responded to O'Sullivan's onslaught in the evening session by reeling off back-to-back centuries to triumph.
"I understand not everyone out there is going to play as naturally as Ronnie, he is a one-off," said Selby.
"You see people who are naturally talented and others have to work hard. I hold my hands up to know I have to work at it but I would rather it be that way."
Asked if his victory was sweet as it came against O'Sullivan, Selby replied: "To beat Ronnie is great. In my eyes, if he plays in every tournament then he is still the best player and the one to beat. To play him in a major final and to win is a great feeling."
O'Sullivan admitted after his final-frame win over Marco Fu in the semi-finals that he would be the underdog against Selby.
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'The Rocket' has now been beaten by Selby in the finals of all three Triple Crown events, and called him 'The Torturer' in his autobiography in reference to his style of play.
O'Sullivan, 41 on Monday, said: "It seems like when someone plays me it is a cup final for them, like Stephen Hendry in his day. Whoever he played, it was a big match.
"As long as I continue to play, whoever I play, it will be big. People like playing someone who has won so many tournaments. It is like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in tennis. They stand out from everyone else."
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Hampshire's mobile library service is to be scrapped, the county council has confirmed.

The authority said the service would be replaced by a volunteer-run "home library service" for people who are unable to access a public library.
Three mobile library staff members have taken voluntary redundancy and talks are on-going with four others.
The current service will end after 30 June as the authority looks to save ??1.7m by 2020.
In its report, Hampshire County Council said it would look to develop links with voluntary groups which provide community transport to help people in rural areas access their local library.
The decision to scrap the service follows a public consultation which sawa more than 9,500 people and organisations respond.
Plans to close the mobile service in Grayshott less than a year after its static library was shut "raised dissatisfaction" with residents and organisations, the council said.
Other concerns raised included children not having access to books.
However, the council said 62% of respondents were in favour of stopping the service - which is used by 1% of total library customers and costs ??11.44 per visit, per customer, compared to ??2.23 at static libraries.


Southend got their play-off challenge back on track with a comfortable win at 10-man Chesterfield, who are all-but relegated.

After defeats in their past two League One games, Phil Brown's side took an early lead from the penalty spot when Simon Cox fired home.
Southend remain one spot and one point outside the play-off places after sixth-placed Millwall overcame Northampton, while defeat leaves Chesterfield nine points from safety with thee games remaining.
Anthony Wordsworth and Cox breached the static Spireites defence in the second half to kill the contest, while Marc-Antoine Fortune made it four with his first touch after coming off the bench.
Just before the break Dion Donohue was dismissed for a foul on Jason Demetriou to add to Chesterfield's woes.
Cox was the man that earned and scored Southend's 15th-minute penalty. On the ball, he stood firm as goalkeeper Thorsten Stuckmann scampered towards him and when contact was made the referee had an easy decision to make and the spot-kick was duly converted.
Poor defending contributed to United's three second-half goals, Wordsworth converting a Demetriou cross while Cox took advantage of some solid Will Atkinson work before Fortune slipped through a shell-shocked defence to complete the scoring.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Chesterfield 0, Southend United 4.
Second Half ends, Chesterfield 0, Southend United 4.
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Tom Anderson.
Attempt blocked. Theo Robinson (Southend United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Paul McGinn.
Attempt missed. Liam Grimshaw (Chesterfield) right footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the left is just a bit too high.
Foul by Paul McGinn (Chesterfield).
Stephen McLaughlin (Southend United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Michael Timlin (Southend United) left footed shot from more than 35 yards is high and wide to the left.
Liam Grimshaw (Chesterfield) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Michael Timlin (Southend United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Liam Grimshaw (Chesterfield).
(Southend United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Chesterfield).
Attempt missed. Anthony Wordsworth (Southend United) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top left corner.
Stephen McLaughlin (Southend United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Paul McGinn (Chesterfield).
Substitution, Chesterfield. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake replaces Kristian Dennis.
Substitution, Southend United. Theo Robinson replaces Simon Cox.
Goal!  Chesterfield 0, Southend United 4. Marc-Antoine Fortuné (Southend United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Anthony Wordsworth.
Substitution, Southend United. Marc-Antoine Fortuné replaces Nile Ranger.
Substitution, Chesterfield. Liam Grimshaw replaces Joe Rowley.
Substitution, Southend United. Zavon Hines replaces Will Atkinson.
Goal!  Chesterfield 0, Southend United 3. Simon Cox (Southend United) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner.
Attempt blocked. Michael Timlin (Southend United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Anthony Wordsworth (Southend United) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt blocked. Jason Demetriou (Southend United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Substitution, Chesterfield. Rai Simons replaces Dan Gardner.
Goal!  Chesterfield 0, Southend United 2. Anthony Wordsworth (Southend United) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Stephen McLaughlin.
Foul by Nile Ranger (Southend United).
Tom Anderson (Chesterfield) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Will Atkinson (Southend United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the left.
Will Atkinson (Southend United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Will Atkinson (Southend United).
Daniel Jones (Chesterfield) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
John White (Southend United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Paul McGinn (Chesterfield).
Attempt blocked. Will Atkinson (Southend United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Second Half begins Chesterfield 0, Southend United 1.
First Half ends, Chesterfield 0, Southend United 1.


A man has died while walking at Aonach Eagach Ridge in Glen Coe, Police Scotland has confirmed.

Emergency services were alerted at about 11:40 on Saturday.
The identity of the 44-year-old man has not been released at this stage.
The narrow rocky ridge is well-known, and a popular challenge, among hillwalkers and climbers,


Northern Ireland began their Euro 2016 campaign with a 1-0 defeat against Poland in Group C in Nice, and must now regroup before facing Ukraine on Thursday.

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Did all the players do enough to keep their place in Michael O'Neill's team? Or is anyone in danger of dropping to the bench in Lyon?
BBC Sport's Lyle Jackson rates the players as Northern Ireland made a first appearance at a major tournament for 30 years:
Was called into action late in the first half, doing well to beat away a strong shot by Bartosz Kapustka, and couldn't fault him on Arkadiusz Milik's goal. Hasn't conceded more than one goal in any of his 12 appearances.
Deserves a lot of credit for making the leap from League One with Fleetwood Town to playing on the Euro 2016 stage. Many did not expect him to start, but he justified his inclusion.
Played his part in an impressive Northern Ireland defensive display, which blunted the threat posed by Europe's leading marksman, Robert Lewandowski. An ever-present in qualifying, he didn't hide his disappointment at the end.
The Watford man also contributed to keeping Lewandowski at bay. Picked up a 69th-minute yellow card for bringing down the Bayern Munich danger man.
Perhaps the most accomplished of Northern Ireland's defenders, making some important interceptions during a busy opening spell when Poland were piling forward. The 28-year-old's experience in big matches shone through on his 50th appearance.
Grew into the game after looking exposed in the early stages. Moved out of defence into a deep midfield role after the break but was replaced by substitute Conor Washington.
Having appeared in every match of Northern Ireland's 12-match unbeaten run, he covered plenty of ground and it would be 10 out of 10 for effort.
A solid, unfussy contribution from the experienced Derby County man. Put in a huge shift for the cause, operating just in front of the defensive unit.
Wasn't the young Manchester United player's day as he struggled to see much of the ball. When manager Michael O'Neill opted to change tactics at half-time, McNair was replaced by Stuart Dallas.
The one midfielder who always seemed to have time on the ball, even when Northern Ireland were seriously under pressure. He is a class act and almost grabbed an equaliser, just failing to get on the end of Oliver Norwood's clever free-kick late on.
Showed no signs of the groin injury he had sustained earlier in the week. The lone front man was energetic but suffered from a lack of support as NI failed to mount dangerous attacks.
Looked good when he came on for McNair at the start of the second half. The Leeds United midfielder may have been disappointed not to start, but has staked a serious claim for inclusion against Ukraine on Thursday.
Provided overdue support for Lafferty and helped Northern Ireland produce an improved performance in the final quarter of the match. If O'Neill goes with two strikers against Ukraine, expect to see the Queens Park Rangers forward in the starting line-up.
Came on for the last 15 minutes as Northern Ireland attempted to find an equaliser, but didn't manage a telling contribution in the limited time he had.
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Northern Ireland has lost £53m of public money that had been earmarked for a new joint training college for the police, fire and prison services.

The college was supposed to be built at Desertcreat, County Tyrone by 2008,  but was dogged by problems and delays.
A Stormont committee has now been told the Treasury has withdrawn the funding.
In March, the BBC reported two Stormont departments had accepted it was no longer economically viable, marking the final nail in the coffin for the plan.
The project was first announced in 2004 and more than £12m has already been spent buying the site and on design fees.
SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone has been involved in talks about the proposed college for more than 15 years, first as a Cookstown councillor and then in his current role as a member of Stormont's Justice Committee.
He told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme that the construction project had suffered a "death by 1,000 cuts".
"It has been messed up, it has gone back and forward to the Policing Board," Mr McGlone said.
He said the public were frustrated by the "sheer incompetence that has been shown from beginning to end with this project".
"Today it emerged, following questions from myself at the Justice Committee, that the £53m that had been committed by Westminster to this project is now gone, no longer available for the project."
The SDLP MLA said there was huge disappointment in the Cookstown area over the failure to build the college.
"Hopes were riding high on this project to deliver for construction, to deliver for local jobs, local services and the domino effect that it was going to have on the local economy for retailers, for housing, all those sorts of things. And people, by this stage, are utterly fed up."
Mr McGlone said that although there was talk of a scaled-down version of the training college, the lost of £53m was a major setback to any future plan.
Justice Minister David Ford was not available for interview but a spokesperson at the Department of Justice said the college "remains a Programme for Government commitment".
"The Executive allocated £53m to the project in the 2015-16 budget but this was conditional on access to End-Year Flexibility (EYF) from HM Treasury," they said.
"All such EYF commitments have ceased and it will be a matter for Department of Finance and Personnel to engage with HM Treasury to seek to deploy the Northern Ireland contribution elsewhere in 2015-16 if possible."


The annual rate of UK house price growth cooled further in May, after slowing the previous month, according to the Nationwide building society.

The annual rate of house price growth was 4.7% in May, down from 4.9% in April and 5.7% in March.
In May alone, house prices rose by 0.2%, the same as the previous month.
The Nationwide said one factor was that many people had rushed to buy houses in March because of stamp duty changes that took effect on 1 April.
Further evidence of the drop off in activity following the peak in March came in UK mortgage figures from the Bank of England.
There were 66,250 home loans approved for house purchases in April, an 11-month low and down on the average of 71,075 over the previous six months, the figures showed.
The volatility generated by the stamp duty changes - which added a surcharge for buy-to-let investors and the owners of second homes - made it difficult to gauge the underlying strength of activity in the housing market, said Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner.
"House purchase activity is likely to fall in the months ahead, given the number of purchasers that brought forward transactions," he added.
"The recovery thereafter may also be fairly gradual, especially in the [buy-to-let] sector, where other policy changes, such as the reduction in tax relief for landlords from 2017, are likely to exert an ongoing drag.
"Nevertheless, healthy labour market conditions and low borrowing costs are expected to underpin a steady increase in housing market activity once stamp duty-related volatility has passed, providing the economic recovery remains on track."
The Nationwide said that the cost of the average home in the UK had risen to Â£204,368. Such a sum is creating difficulty for many potential first-time buyers to get on the housing ladder despite the relatively low cost of mortgages.
"Affordability is a massive issue in many areas of the country, particularly the capital, but it is being counterbalanced to an extent by continued low borrowing costs," said Mark Posniak, managing director at Dragonfly Property Finance.
"What is hard to deny is that the result of the EU referendum could have a material impact on house prices in the short to medium term.
"What happens in June could determine the fate of the market for several years to come."
There have been claims and counterclaims by the two sides in the referendum debate over how house prices have been and would be affected in relation to the UK's position in Europe.


There was barely enough time after James McPake's equaliser to make sense of the

The Dundee manager Paul Hartley had been sent to the stand for being so overcome in his celebrations that he galloped off down the touchline punching the air, but he didn't even make it to halfway towards the tunnel before the final whistle sounded on the 2-2 draw.
What to make of this game? In some respects, it was a typical meeting between two neighbouring rivals, full of intensity, effort and determination. There was barely a pause to allow the frantic nature of the play to subside, and composure tended to be left in the slipstream of the game's high tempo.
The encounter was an indication of how far Dundee have progressed in the 18 months since Hartley took over as manager, but also of where a series of departures has left the United squad and the extent of the work Jackie McNamara has to do to maintain the team's standing.
It was clear from the outset that Hartley intended to be assertive at Tannadice. He played all three of his strikers, although Rory Loy was not as sharp or vibrant as normal and may still have been feeling the effects of a recent injury. Even so, in the first-half there was a sense of purpose to Dundee's attacks.
They could go long and try to play the pacy Kane Hemmings in over the top of the United defence, or they could try to build the play through midfield, where Gary Harkins was always reliable on the ball.
Mostly, though, they still looked at their most threatening whenever Greg Stewart was in possession.
He was a player of the year candidate last season and the summer has not blunted his instincts or ability. Stewart was able to carry the ball past defenders and was adept at cutting onto his dangerous left foot.
The United defenders would have known what was coming when he received the ball on he right of the penalty area in the second half, but they were powerless to stop him skelping the ball into the the far top corner.
With Hemmings' speed, Loy's movement and predatory instincts and Stewart's burgeoning talent, Dundee will be well served in attack. Paul McGowan was bright and lively when he came off the bench, but otherwise it was notable that Dundee had few attacking options in reserve.
At times Hartley can switch around different duos as partners, but the favoured 4-3-3 formation means that keeping all three of them fit will also be key.
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The summer at Tannadice was spent regrouping, and McNamara's task this season is to try to develop another batch of young players, while still delivering results. Development and progress are difficult outcomes to balance.
Coll Donaldson and Mark Durnan are still developing a partnership at centre-back, but they have experienced full-backs either side of them in Ryan McGowan and Paul Dixon. The goalkeeper Luis Zwick was tall and imposing at times, but will be concerned that twice he pushed away shots back into dangerous areas, with Nick Ross failing to convert one rebound, but McPake being more decisive in the closing seconds.
For all of his undoubted potential, John Souttar is still a work in progress. McNamara clearly believes that he is better suited to a holding midfield role, but Souttar has not yet displayed the passing range, positional awareness, or running power to define himself as a midfielder. That can come in time, but this is a significant season for the 18-year-old, since the United coaching staff rate him highly and need him to prove his worth to the side.
The same could be said for several of the attacking midfielders. Scott Fraser is a tall, angular player with a promising left foot and good footwork; Aidan Connolly is small but deft and clever, able to find pockets of spaces but still to show that he can cut through defences with his passing; Blair Spittal is mobile and quick-witted, and took his two goals superbly against Dundee, but spent much of the first-half being anonymous; while Charlie Telfer shares many of the qualities of Connolly but has also still to display his assertiveness.
Simon Murray made a significant impression as a substitute, with his rangy running and eagerness to harass defenders. Murray is raw, and not yet ready to lead the line from the start of games, but there is potential to work with.
For all that the two managers want to promote young players and have shopped shrewdly in the lower leagues - Dundee's Kevin Holt and Durnan were at Queen of the South last season, Stewart came from Cowdenbeath, and Spittal from Queen's Park, just as examples - the value of experience was clear. John Rankin was prominent in midfield for United, shuttling himself and the ball around the park reliably and usefully.
He also steered Zwick away from trouble after the goalkeeper reacted angrily to a challenge in the first-half, and Rankin was a steadying influence throughout. The same applied to Kevin Thomson, who kept popping up in space to take the ball from team-mates under pressure and whose calmness spread through the side.
Thomson's influence was even more keenly felt when he left the field injured, since United took advantage of their opponents losing the holding midfielder to score twice in two minutes.
At this stage of season there is no way of knowing which of the Dundee clubs will finish above the other. It can be said, though, that there is little between them.


West African leaders have given Yahya Jammeh a final opportunity to relinquish power after Senegalese troops entered The Gambia.

Mr Jammeh has been given until noon on Friday to leave office or be forced out by UN-backed regional forces.
Troops have been told to halt their advance until the deadline passes.
The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) is acting in support of Adama Barrow, who was sworn in as the new Gambian president on Thursday.
His legitimacy as president, after winning last month's election, has been recognised internationally.
Last-ditch mediation talks, led by Guinea's President Alpha Conde, are due on Friday morning.
Chairman of the Ecowas commission, Marcel Alain de Souza, said that if the meeting with Mr Conde proved unsuccessful, militarily action would follow.
"If by midday, he [Mr Jammeh] doesn't agree to leave The Gambia under the banner of President Conde, we really will intervene militarily," he said.
Ecowas said that its forces had encountered no resistance after entering The Gambia on Thursday.
Troops from Senegal and other West African countries crossed into The Gambia after an initial deadline for Mr Jammeh to stand down passed with his resignation.
Mr Barrow, who remains in Senegal, has said that he will not return to Gambia's capital, Banjul, until the military operation had ended.
The threat by the West African regional bloc Ecowas to remove Mr Jammeh by force is supported by the 15-member UN Security Council, although the council has stressed that a political solution should be the priority.
A Senegalese army spokesman, Col Abdou Ndiaye, told the BBC that troops who were now in The Gambia were prepared to fight if necessary.
"It is already war, if we find any resistance, we will fight it," he said, adding: "If there are people who are fighting for the former president, we will fight them."
But Col Ndiaye said the main goal of Ecowas was to restore democracy and to allow the newly-elected president to take power.
In his inaugural speech at the Gambian embassy in Senegal's capital, Dakar, President Barrow ordered all members of The Gambia's armed forces to remain in their barracks.
Any found found illegally bearing arms would be considered "rebels", he said.
After first accepting defeat he reversed his position and said he would not step down. He declared a 90-day state of emergency, blaming irregularities in the electoral process.
The electoral commission accepted that some of its early results had contained errors but said they would not have affected Mr Barrow's win.
Mr Jammeh has said he will stay in office until new elections are held.
Remaining in power would also give him protection against prosecution for alleged abuses committed during his rule.


Andy Murray's French Open hopes ended with a five-set defeat by Swiss third seed Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals.

The world number one was beaten 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 in four hours and 34 minutes.
It was a repeat of last year's semi-final, which the Briton won before going on to lose the final to Novak Djokovic.
Former champion Wawrinka will play Rafael Nadal in Sunday's final after the Spaniard beat Dominic Thiem.
Nadal, who beat the Austrian 6-3 6-4 6-0, will become the first player in the open era to win 10 titles at one Grand Slam if he beats Wawrinka.
The 31-year-old Nadal is yet to drop a set in this year's tournament as he looks to secure his first Grand Slam since winning in Paris in 2014.
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Wawrinka will get the chance to add a second Roland Garros title to his 2015 victory, and move ahead of Murray with four Grand Slam titles, after his shot-making won the day.
The Swiss hit 87 winners - 45 on the forehand side - as he finally overcame the determination and defensive skills of Murray.
Short on matches after a season interrupted by illness and injury, Murray got within four points of victory but ultimately ran out of gas as Wawrinka made him cover a punishing 4.5km over more than four hours.
Physically I didn't feel my best at the end
"It was not like I was far away from winning the match," said Murray.
"I was close to finishing it in the fourth set. There are a few things that I for sure feel I could do better, I would have liked to have done a bit differently."
Wawrinka had chances to win both the first and third sets as well, only for Murray to clinch a gripping opening tie-break after two superb lobs in the same rally.
The Swiss went on a run of seven games in a row to take the second and move 3-0 up in the third, as he pulled the Scot from side to side before firing winners into the spaces down each line.
It took a magnificent response from Murray, twice a break down, to edge the third set as he harried and chased into the far reaches of Philippe Chatrier Court.
When Wawrinka dumped a volley into the net to fall two sets to one behind, having lost three points when Murray sent smashes flying back to him, the Swiss looked understandably bewildered.
The fourth set came down to another tie-break as neither man could fashion a break point, and a misjudged drop shot from Murray proved crucial as Wawrinka took the last three points in a row.
The prospect of a fifth-set decider had the Chatrier crowd on their feet but Wawrinka made sure it was no contest, opening up with another forehand winner down the line as he raced 5-0 clear.
Murray managed one final rearguard with a break of serve, before Wawrinka ripped his 21st backhand winner of the afternoon down the line to secure victory.
"Physically I didn't feel my best at the end," said Murray. "It is more like I didn't have enough weight on my shot at the end to put him under any real pressure.
"A lot of the points he was dictating from the middle of the court, and I was retrieving and allowing him to pretty much hit the shots that he wants.
"And against a shot-maker, someone who hits the ball as big as him, that's obviously not ideal."
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller at Roland Garros
Resilience and bloody-mindedness allowed Murray to win a third set of rapidly changing emotions, and it was the world number one who made most of the running in the early stages of the fourth.
Murray's defence was remarkable for most of the match, but at this crucial stage it was Wawrinka who deserved enormous credit for riding out the storm, winning a tie-break and then playing an exceptional fifth set.
While the Swiss was still able to hit the ball with enormous power in the decider, the zip had gone out of Murray's strokes and legs, as a lack of matches in the months leading up to Roland Garros took effect.
It hurts when you are just a tie-break from the final, but this has been a very profitable French Open for Murray. Five wins and 18 hours on the match court should prove excellent preparation for Wimbledon.
Austria's Thiem, 23, is the only player to beat Nadal on clay this year and showed his serious promise by beating defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final.
But, when faced with nine-time champion Nadal - who has only lost twice at Roland Garros - the challenge proved too much.
Thiem broke his opponent's serve in the first game of the match before Nadal repeated the trick in the following game.
The Austrian let four more break-point opportunities slip in a tight opening set but from that point Nadal dominated and he went on to complete victory in two hours and seven minutes.
"I was starting a little bit more nervous today than normal, but then I played well, I think," said Nadal.
"It's true that Dominic played with more mistakes than usual."
Asked about the prospect of a 10th title, he said: "I think I don't make more history, it's enough. Nine are more than good.
"Another thing is today is not the moment to think about that. It's the moment I have to be very happy."


Egypt feels badly let down by its ally and partner Britain, according to officials who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.

The Egyptian government believes it has complied with every security improvement demanded in the wake of the 2015 bombing of a Russian passenger plane by so-called Islamic State (IS) that killed everyone onboard soon after take-off from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport in the Sinai Peninsula.
Yet 18 months on from the incident, as other European tourists have returned to the Red Sea resort in their thousands, the UK has refused to reverse its suspension of flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, allegedly on direct orders from No 10.
Downing Street has declined to comment but the Department for Transport said: "The security of British nationals is our top priority, and we took the decision to suspend flights from Sharm el-Sheikh in November 2015 following the Metrojet crash to protect the travelling public.
"We continue to work closely with the Egyptian authorities on security arrangements at the airport. We keep aviation security under constant review and will resume flights as soon as we can."
The problem is that despite an exhaustive, months-long investigation, Egypt has not so far been able to find and arrest the perpetrators of the bombing.
Shortly after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh's international airport for St Petersburg on 31 October 2015 Metrojet flight 9268 disintegrated in mid-air over the Sinai desert, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
The Egyptian government initially disputed that terrorism was the cause but western intelligence agencies detected increased "chatter" by jihadists just ahead of the incident, including messages of congratulation sent from inside Syria.
This was shared with the Russian government, prompting both countries to suspend flights to the Sharm resort indefinitely. IS's Sinai affiliate claimed responsibility for the attack.
Egyptian officials now admit that at the time in question, October 2015, Sharm el-Sheikh airport fell well short of international security standards.
But they responded to a damning January 2016 report about its shortcomings by allowing in a team of British aviation security experts who have now spent time assessing all of Egypt's major airports.
Cairo, Marsa Alam, Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan and Sharm el-Sheikh have all now been inspected at length, with a semi-permanent presence of British aviation experts.
Egypt says biometric screening for all airport staff has been introduced at some of these airports, with sensitive explosive detection equipment even having to be imported by the military in order to circumvent lengthy bureaucratic customs delays.
The FCO says about 231,000 British nationals visited Egypt in 2016 and that most visits were trouble-free. In 2015 some 900,000 Britons travelled to the country.
At Sharm itself, say Egyptian officials, it is not only the ground staff at the airport who have been investigated, but also their families and their families' relatives.
The result, they say, is that, in order to rule out any chance that an airport employee's relative may have extremist sympathies, between 40-50% of employees have lost their security clearance and their jobs at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
Security there, say officials, is now being run by a private company, separate from the airport authority, after receiving extensive training from British aviation experts.
"We have implemented all the recommendations made for improvements at Sharm and received regular and positive reports back from the UK," said an Egyptian official who asked not to be named, adding: "This means that Sharm el-Sheikh is comparable to the safest airports in the world, and yet it seems to have had no effect on the UK flight ban."
The situation today is incongruous. The UK Foreign Office Travel Advisory marks the fenced-off area around Sharm el-Sheikh as "green", meaning that it does not advise against travel there.
Yet given that the rest of the Sinai is marked in orange and red, where the FCO advises against travel, it is considered too dangerous to travel overland.
The FCO Travel Advisory says that as a precautionary measure it advises against air travel to Sharm.
Thomson, First Choice, Monarch and all the other UK charter flight operators take their cue from the FCO Advisory. Although this is not strictly a government order to comply, insurance is a major factor and none has chosen to flout the advice.
But a senior Whitehall official told the BBC that with the Egyptian authorities facing an ongoing and rising threat from terrorism and insurgency in the Sinai, "The metrics are going in the wrong direction".
An armed attack by IS near St Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai this month killed a police officer, there have been frequent attacks on police and soldiers in north Sinai, while bombings of Coptic churches on the Egyptian mainland have prompted President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency.
Simmering in the background is a sense of injustice by Cairo towards the way the UK has handled all this.
The UK's decision to suspend all flights to Sharm el-Sheikh was announced, unilaterally, on 5 November 2015 just as President Sisi was on his way to London for a pre-arranged visit with a large entourage.
I met him the next morning as he addressed journalists and business leaders and there was a strong sense of pique.
"If the UK had intelligence about this attack, then why did it not share it with us?" Egypt's foreign minister asked me, adding: "We are supposed to be partners."
The two governments also differ sharply in attitudes towards the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt sees as a terrorist organisation but which the UK refuses to outlaw.
Both Egyptian and UK tour operators want to see British tourists return to Sharm el-Sheikh but one thing is clear.
No decision will be taken before the 8 June general election in Britain. But after that, there is still no sign of the travel ban being lifted.
An Egyptian official said: "We accepted the idea of a road map to improve security... but a road map has to have a destination and right now we can't see one."


Prince Charles has co-authored a Ladybird book on the challenges and possible solutions to climate change.

It is part of a series for adults written in the style of the well-known children's books that aims to clearly explain complicated subjects.
The 52-page guide has been co-authored by former Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper and climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh.
Mr Juniper said he hoped the book would "stand the test of time".
Ladybird produced a series of books for children in the 1960s and 1970s and has recently found renewed success with a range of humorous books for adults.
Titles include the Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis and the Ladybird Book of the Hangover.
The latest series involves experts explaining complex subjects in simple form.
The prince previously co-authored a book with Mr Juniper and Ian Skelly called Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World. He also wrote a children's book entitled The Old Man of Lochnagar.
Mr Juniper told the Mail on Sunday: "His royal highness, Emily and I had to work very hard to make sure that each word did its job, while at the same time working with the pictures to deliver the points we needed to make.
"I hope we've managed to paint a vivid picture, and, like those iconic titles from the 60s and 70s, created a title that will stand the test of time."
A publishing director for Penguin, which produces Ladybird books, revealed Clarence House had put the latest idea to the publisher.
Rowland White told the Sunday Times: "It was a coincidence where we were thinking about a new series for adults after the huge success of the spoof books, but this time wanted some factual books by experts on science, history and arts subjects."
Penguin Books said the title, which will be released on 26 January, had been read and reviewed by figures within the environmental community.
The other books in the series are Quantum Mechanics by Jim Al-Khalili, and Evolution by Steve Jones.
Asked how the book might be received in the academic community, Dr Phillip Williamson, an associate fellow at the University of East Anglia's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "There's the obvious danger that this won't be taken seriously.
"But if the style is right, and the information is correct and understandable, the new Ladybird book with royal authorship could be just what is needed to get the message across that everyone needs to take action on climate change."


If demographics are destiny, as the 19th-century French sociologist Auguste Comte once said, the Republican Party is in trouble.

Minorities are becoming an increasingly larger portion of the population that votes in US presidential elections, and those voters overwhelmingly support Democrats.
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney won 17% of the non-white vote - Hispanics, blacks, Asians and others - and 59% of the white vote.
Thanks to population changes in the last four years, if the 2016 Republican nominee maintained that non-white percentage, he or she would have to win about 64% of the white vote, according to Republican pollsters Glen Bolger and Neil Newhouse - a seemingly insurmountable margin.
The last Republican to win a presidential election, George W Bush in 2004, carried 58% of the white vote and 26% of the non-white vote. In 2016 those would be losing numbers.
At the National Urban League's presidential forum, the audience favourite was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - and she seemed to feed on the crowd's energy.
If there were some concern that Democrats have been taking the black vote for granted, she wanted the community to know that "your issues are deeply personal to me".
"The real test of a candidate's commitment is not if we come to speak at a national conference, as important as that is, it's whether we're still around after the cameras are gone and the votes are counted."
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush received polite applause throughout his address.
Unlike Mrs Clinton and the other Democrats who spoke today, he gets points just for showing up before this audience. Most of the other Republicans didn't - only Mr Bush and Ben Carson attended.
He noted his defeat during his first run for governor in 1994 as a key turning point that has made him more sensitive to the concerns of the black community.
"I went through what some people might call self-reflection - I call living and learning," he said.
As It Happened: Candidates court black voters
When political analysts and strategists talk about Republican efforts to reach out to minority voters, the focus of late largely has been on Hispanics. They represent the largest, fastest-growing block of the non-white electorate - 10% of the electorate in 2012 - and they are perceived to be more open to a conservative message because of studies showing them to be more religious, with a high value on tight-knit families.
The politics of the immigration issue - including border security and the status of undocumented workers - have complicated the Republican pitch, however. Candidates like Donald Trump, with his now-infamous line about Mexico sending "criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc" to the US, are taking hard line positions that some fear could alienate Hispanic voters.
"All the Latino friendly Republican candidates in the world may be unable to repair the damage done by a primary that seems set to turn on antipathy toward Hispanic immigrant culture," writes Noah Rothman in an essay in Commentary magazine.
As another option, he argues, Republican candidates should try to make inroads in a voting segment that has turned out in record numbers and voted overwhelmingly for the Democrat in the past two presidential elections - blacks.
That Democrat on the ballot in 2008 and 2012, of course, was Barack Obama - and his status as the first black US president likely explains much of the enthusiasm and support for his campaign.
Mr Obama isn't running in 2016, however, leading Rothman to argue that the black vote represents an "untapped well" for Republicans.
"If Republicans were even modestly successful in appealing to African-Americans, it would make winning elections substantially more difficult for Democratic politicians," he writes.
This may explain why Republican candidates like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and former Texas Governor Rick Perry are leavening their speeches with talk of broadening their party's appeal and advancing issues they believe will attract blacks voters.
Mr Paul, for instance, calls for creating low-tax, low-regulation "economic freedom zones" in black neighbourhoods, restoring voting rights for convicted felons and reforming a federal prison sentencing system that has been criticised as being unfair to blacks.
Mr Bush has pledged to campaign in places where Republicans rarely appear, such as inner cities and black churches.
"I want to be the candidate who goes into the African-American community and says: 'Join our team because our values are the ones that you share'," Mr Bush said recently in New Hampshire.
In a speech in early July, Mr Perry asserted that Republicans were in part to blame for their party's lack of black support by placing too much emphasis on states' rights.
"There has been, and there will continue to be an important and a legitimate role for the federal government in enforcing civil rights," he said. "When we gave up trying to win the support of African-Americans, we lost our moral legitimacy as the party of Lincoln, as the party of equal opportunity for all."
On Friday Mr Bush - along with fellow Republican Ben Carson, the only prominent black candidate for either party, and Democrats Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders - will travel to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to address the annual conference of the National Urban League, a black civil rights organization. Mr Paul was a keynote speaker at its 2014 gathering.
At the conference on Thursday, attendees and speakers grappled with the upcoming 2016 election and the role that black voters will play. Some of the talk could prove encouraging for Republicans.
"We are a part, as black voters, of a coalition that we've given everything to and can't ask anything from," Van Jones, an environmental activist, lawyer and former Obama adviser, said during a panel on the presidential race. "As long as that's our position, we're going to continue to be mistreated within our own party."
Blacks have been supportive of other Democratic priorities, such as immigration reform, the environment and gay rights, but are being ignored on matters that concern their communities.
"The Obama era of black silence on issues that are important to us is over," he said.
That doesn't necessarily mean good news for conservatives, however. Fellow panellist Angela Rye, a political strategist and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, said after the session that she's seen little from the current crop of Republicans that will appeal to black voters.
"Black folks shouldn't be beholden to the Democratic Party, they should be beholden to their interests," she said. "To me, however, the Republicans are style over substance. Anybody can come up with a good talking point or two. I'd love to see what their real agenda looks like."
These spilt sentiments - a dissatisfaction with the Democratic response to black issues but a lack of trust in a viable Republican alternative - were echoed among many convention attendees.
Ludlow Bailey of Miami said that while Mr Bush was "a balanced guy" and a smart politician, his attempts to reach out to the black community were being drowned out by candidates like Mr Trump.
"Donald Trump is really screwing it up for Republicans," he said, adding that it was not just Hispanics who were being put off by his brash style.
If the black community is in turmoil, that could represent a rare opportunity for Republican candidates to tip the balance a bit more in their favour for the first time in more than a generation.
Toward the end of the day on Thursday, the Reverend Al Sharpton - a long time black activist who has a reputation for brashness himself - pointed out that in 2016 Americans will elect the first white president to follow a black president.
"The bar has been raised higher than it has been before," he said. "After Obama you can not get away with what you got away with before."
That is an opportunity and a challenge - for Republicans and Democrats alike.


The chairman of Samsung Electronics Lee Kun-hee has won a case brought by his brother, who was demanding an $850m (£522m) share of his inherited wealth.

Lee Kun-hee was accused by Lee Maeng-hee of hiding company shares after their father, Samsung's founder, died.
But on Thursday Seoul's High Court upheld the original verdict which found in favour of Lee Kun-hee.
Lee Maeng-hee's lawyer said his client had not yet decided whether to take his case to the Supreme Court.
The High Court found that some of the shares in the Samsung Group claimed by Lee Maeng-hee had been left to him by his father, Lee Byung-Chull, when he died in 1987.
But it said the 10-year period for inheritance claims had expired.
A ruling against the chairman - who is also South Korea's richest man - could have diluted his grip on one of the country's biggest companies.
Lee Maeng-hee and other relatives had filed a $4bn claim against Lee Kun-Hee in 2012, arguing he had hidden shares in other people's names.
The other family members chose not to continue with their claim after a lower court ruling against them last year.
The Samsung chairman accused his brother of becoming jealous as the company grew into a global brand.
Lee Byung-Chull, who founded Samsung in 1938 selling dried fish in South Korea, had three sons and five daughters.
Under Lee Kun-hee's leadership, Samsung has grown into the world's biggest maker of mobile phones and televisions.
In 2008, Lee Kun-hee was convicted of tax evasion, which led him to resign as chairman of the company.
But he received a presidential pardon in 2009 and returned to lead Samsung Electronics in 2010.


One hundred and forty five years ago this Sunday, 17 May, an artist and photographer called David Octavius Hill passed away.

His name may not be a household one to most Scots, but his influence in the world of photography is worthy of remembrance.
Octavius Hill's life, and that of his creative partner Robert Adamson, is defined by a four-year period where the pair took thousands of pictures of key figures, working people and landmarks in 1840s Edinburgh.
Their resulting body of work, which according to the National Portrait Gallery contains the first ever photographic documentation of the working classes in the world, continues to influence portrait photography today.
Octavius Hill was born in Perth in 1802.
He later moved to Edinburgh to study at the School of Design, and found success after the Institution for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland exhibited his landscape paintings.
He went on to produce illustrations for books, with works by Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns in his portfolio.
Then, in 1843, Octavius Hill was present at the 'Disruption' Church of Scotland Assembly, where 450 ministers - upset over the issue of the church's relationship with the state - left to form the Free Church of Scotland.
Octavius Hill decided he would record the event with a painting. David Brewster, of St Andrews University, suggested the artist contact Adamson, who could take pictures of the clergymen.
This, the men believed, would help Octavius Hill achieve a likeness to those who were at the meeting.
Together, over the next four years, they took about 3,000 pictures including images of the clergymen.
Sadly, their partnership came to an early end when Adamson died in 1848 after suffering ill health. He was 26.
In their short but influential partnership,  Octavius Hill and Adamson created a body of work which is still renowned in artistic circles today.
Anne Lyden is the International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland.
For her, the partnership of Octavius Hill and Adamson was "pioneering".
"Photography was only announced in 1839, and by 1843 Hill and Adamson had set up their studio in Edinburgh," said the academic.
"Many people had not even seen a photograph. For them to strike out, and to be so good at it, was quite remarkable."
Ms Lyden believes the depictions of working people, especially their social documentary of fishermen and fish wives in 1840s Edinburgh and St Andrews, was compelling.
"In the short time they worked together, they produced a phenomenal amount of work when you put it into context of how they were made - mixing all the chemistry together, all had to be done outside," she added. "It shows the tenacity they had, and they elevated the medium.
"The work in Newhaven was the first of its kind, looking at the working class community and celebrating that hard-working ethos."
As well as portraits of the Scottish clergymen, the men took portrait pictures of artists, writers, philanthropists, teachers, and visitors to Edinburgh.
They also took some of the earliest known pictures of landmarks in the city.
With the help of his pictures with Adamson, Octavius Hill finally completed his painting of the Disruption in 1866, 23 years after the event.
According to the University of Glasgow, it was the first painting in the world where the artist was assisted by photographs of the subjects.
"I think Octavius Hill and Adamson are very relevant to photography today," added Ms Lyden.
"A lot of the techniques they used in the 1840s - such as lighting and props to allude to the sitter's personality and intellect - are still being used today.
"Their photographs possess a naturalism and spontaneity that is beguiling to us as a contemporary viewer."


A former judo coach has been jailed after admitting sexually assaulting an underage girl in the 1990s.

William Westwood, 47, abused his victim, who was from Norfolk and was under 16 at the time, on a trip abroad.
Norwich Crown Court judge Mr Recorder Gallagher said an "element of grooming" was "abundantly clear" in the case.
Westwood, of Linton, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, was sentenced to 20 months in prison and was placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.
He was charged following a "lengthy investigation" by Norfolk Police child abuse investigation unit after the victim came forward in September last year.
Det Con Tristan Coull from Norfolk Police said: "It was an incredibly brave decision for the victim to make to come forward and speak to police after such a long period of time.
"She has had to live with the consequences of the abuse for almost 20 years, abuse which had a profound impact on her having taken place at such a significant time in her life."
Old legislation from the Sexual Offences Act 1998 allowed officer to arrest and charge the suspect event though the offence occurred abroad, the force said.
During sentencing, the judge said: "It is abundantly clear there was an element of grooming in this case and you must be punished for committing a serious sexual offence.
"Others who work with children in this way must know the courts will take action when tutors, teachers and anyone else abuses their position of trust."


A man has been taken to hospital after the non-emergency ambulance he was driving crashed on the M4.

The vehicle, which was not carrying patients, left the eastbound carriageway of the motorway, between junction 34 at Miskin and 35 at Pencoed, at about 11:40 BST on Tuesday.
A passing crew from the Welsh Ambulance Service's hazardous area response team stopped to help.
The driver's injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.


Somerset have signed West Indies opener Chris Gayle to play up to six matches during this summer's T20 Blast.

He will arrive on either 22 or 29 May, depending on how far his Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise progress in the Indian Premier League.
The big-hitting Jamaican, 35, has made 13 centuries in Twenty20 cricket.
"Signing a world-class player of the quality of Chris Gayle is tremendously exciting for the club," said director of cricket Matthew Maynard.
"He will be a tremendous addition to our already extremely strong squad. He is an inspirational character and we are delighted to be bringing him to Somerset."
The left-hander is one of the most charismatic and entertaining players in world cricket, having played 103 Tests, 269 one-day internationals and 45 T20 matches for the West Indies since his debut in 1999.
He also has previous experience of county cricket with Worcestershire.
Gayle could make his Somerset debut in their home game against Sussex on 22 May, or against Essex at Chelmsford a week later.
He will then be available for home matches against Kent (31 May), Hampshire (5 June) and Surrey (12 June) before finishing his brief stint with the county in their away game against Glamorgan on 13 June.
Gayle is the third signing by Somerset for the T20 Blast, with Pakistan all-rounder Sohail Tanvir joining the club for the first half of the competition before being replaced by New Zealand's Corey Anderson.
He hit the first hundred in a T20 international against South Africa in 2007 and his total of 6,975 runs in the game's shortest format is a record.
Gayle is the only player to have a Test triple century, a 50-over double century and T20 hundred to his credit - and last month became the first man to score a double hundred in a World Cup game when he made 215 off 147 balls against Zimbabwe in Canberra.
"Many of the club's members and supporters will know that I came close to playing for the county in 2012 and I have always felt that, if I was able to, I wanted to honour that commitment to Somerset," Gayle said.
"I'm looking forward to coming to Taunton and scoring some runs."
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Shares in Samsung Electronics have dropped after the smartphone giant sued rival Huawei in multiple courts in China over alleged patent infringement.

They closed down 1.8% in Seoul.
The country's benchmark Kospi index wrapped the day flat at 2,010.34.
The two companies are already entangled in several legal battles over the use of proprietary technology, including fourth-generation (4G) cellular technology, operating systems and user interface software.
Huawei sued Samsung in the US in May.
The rest of Asia's share market are mostly lower on Friday due to a tepid earnings season so far on Wall Street.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 1.1% lower at 16,627.25 points.
Nintendo shares ended the day 0.8% higher after earlier jumping by nearly 5% on news it's finally launched the wildly popular Pokemon Go in Japan.
Australian shares finished down 0.3% at 5,498.20.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng wrapped up trading flat at 21,964.27, while the mainland's Shanghai Composite closed 0.9% down at 3,012.43 points.


Great Britain's Joe Joyce will fight for an Olympic gold medal after beating Kazakhstan's Ivan Dychko to reach the men's super-heavyweight boxing final at Rio 2016.

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The 30-year-old lost the first round of three but Dychko, 26, tired and Joyce took a unanimous win.
Joyce will face Frenchman Tony Yoka for the gold medal at 19:15 BST on Sunday.
"I'm staying hungry and staying humble," said Joyce. "One step closer - keep it simple and keep on winning."
Losing semi-finalists Dychko and Croat Filip Hrgovic both receive a bronze medal.
Team GB are aiming for a second successive men's super-heavyweight Olympic title after Anthony Joshua won gold at London 2012.
British Olympic boxing champion Anthony Joshua:
"Dychko came out jabbing at the start but Joe broke him down. I am so happy for him. He has come from grassroots and is in the final. I am so happy.
"He is like a steam train, he was flying at the end. We are going to call him 'Steam-train Joe'."
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Family and friends have paid tribute to two men killed in a crash on the A2 in Kent early on New Year's Day.

Karl Buchan, 23, and Michael Shepherd, 27, are believed to be from the Faversham area.
Friends and family have posted messages of condolence and tributes on social media.
The crash happened near the Dover Castle Inn in Teynham at around 01:20 GMT on Friday.
Mr Buchan's aunt, Lisa Murphy, told the BBC: "I would just like to say how shocked we are by what has happened and to thank everyone for their kind tributes to my nephew Karl at this time of great sadness.
"Our thoughts are with the family of Michael Shepherd."
Mr Buchan's friends described him as a "lovely lad who everyone loved" and someone who "always knew how to put a smile on everyone's face".
Mr Shepherd's father, also called Michael, left a message which read: "Can't believe you're gone son. You never wanted to grow-up, now you won't have to.  I'll always love and miss you."
One tribute to both men read: "Think it's safe to say the whole of Faversham will be feeling down today. We lost two really loved lads. The town will not be same without you in it."
The car had been travelling from the direction of Faversham towards Sittingbourne, police said.
The two men were rear-seat passengers in the car.
The male driver and female front-seat passenger were taken to a London hospital with serious injuries.  Both are now believed to in a stable condition, police said.
Anyone who witnessed the crash or the events leading up to it is asked to contact police.


Bosnia-Herzegovina is recovering from a devastating three-year war which accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

The 1992-1995 conflict centred on whether Bosnia should stay in the Yugoslav Federation, or whether it should become independent.
It is now an independent state, but under international administration. Its three main ethnic groups are Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Croats and Serbs. The war left Bosnia's infrastructure and economy in tatters. Around two million people - about half the population - were displaced.
It is considered one of the most corruption-prone states in Europe, mainly on account of the legacy of deep ethnic and political divisions left by the 1992-1995 war and by the country's complex administrative framework.
International administration, backed at first by Nato forces and later by a smaller European Union-led peacekeeping force, helped Bosnia to achieve a measure of stability.
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
But early in 2007 the International Crisis Group, a think tank, warned: "Bosnia remains unready for unguided ownership of its own future - ethnic nationalism remains too strong."
The 1995 Dayton peace agreement brought to an end the bloodshed of the 1992-1995 war but entrenched the results of "ethnic cleansing", cementing the divide in the country.
The Dayton accord set up two separate entities; a Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, and the Bosnian Serb Republic, or Republika Srpska, each with its own president, government, parliament, police and other bodies.
Overarching these entities is a central Bosnian government and rotating presidency. In addition there exists the district of Brcko, a self-governing administrative unit established as a neutral area placed under joint Serb, Croat and Bosniak authority.
This elaborate multi-tiered system of government, with cabinets and parliaments on state, entity and cantonal levels, means that Bosnia is now overburdened with politicians and civil servants, many of whom continue to receive salaries out of proportion with the country's impoverished condition.
Dayton also established the Office of the High Representative. The Office's representative is the state's ultimate authority, responsible for implementation of Dayton and with the power to ''compel the entity governments to comply with the terms of the peace agreement and the state constitution''.
Critics of Dayton said the entities it created were too close to being states in their own right and that the arrangement reinforced separatism and nationalism at the expense of integration.
Negotiations to amend the existing constitution, established by Dayton in order to strengthen state institutions and transform the country into a non-ethnic parliamentary democracy, have so far failed to make much progress.
In a bid to encourage Bosnia to resolve its ethnic divisions and eventually qualify for EU membership, EU foreign ministers gave the go-ahead in late 2005 for talks on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the country.
The Agreement was initially signed in 2008, but its implementation was delayed by Bosnia's failure to make constitutional amendments called for by the European Court of Human Rights, which said that members of other ethnic minorities should be able to run for senior posts currently reserved for Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs under the system inherited from Dayton.
The European Union eventually agreed to go ahead with the Agreement in March 2015, deeming that Bosnia had made significant economic and democratic progress, although much remains to be done before there can be any serious prospect of EU membership. Bosnia submitted a formal application to join the Union in February 2016.
The prospect of talks with the EU increased pressure for the capture of two key Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
After nearly 13 years on the run, Radovan Karadzic was arrested in July 2008 by Serbian security forces in Belgrade. His trial on war crimes charges opened at the UN tribunal in The Hague in October 2009. Ratko Mladic was arrested by Serbian intelligence officers in a village near Belgrade in May 2011. In March 2016, the UN tribunal found Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide and war crimes and sentenced him to 40 years in jail.
The Bosnian Serb leadership continues to be resentful at having to accept the authority of the High Representative, giving rise to suspicions that its ultimate goal is for the Republika Srpska to break away from the Bosniak-Croat Federation.
In all elections that have been held since the end of the 1992-1995 war, the country's different communities have almost invariably voted along ethnic lines, with nationalist parties usually doing better than more moderate ones - a tendency which has inevitably reinforced the ingrained disunity of the Bosnian state.


The Girl on the Train, the film adaptation of Paula Hawkins' best-selling psychological thriller, has received poor reviews ahead of its release this week.

In the big-screen version of the novel, which arrives in cinemas on Wednesday, the action has moved from London to New York.
British actress Emily Blunt plays alcoholic Rachel, who gets involved in the mystery of a missing woman whom she had been observing from the train on her daily commute to Manhattan.
So what did the critics have to say?
Emily Blunt does her considerable best with this exasperating and plaintive role. In movies from The Devil Wears Prada to Sicario, she has shown that she can look good while being ill or messed up: strong, believable, human, vulnerable. But this part doesn't give her any scope for recovery, for the all-important mastery and survival: she just always looks under the weather. This doesn't give her half the juice and outrageous fun that Rosamund Pike had from Gone Girl. Fans of Paula Hawkins's thriller might find themselves sticking to the book.
Read the full review.
Erin Cressida Wilson (script) and her director, The Help's Tate Taylor, haven't figured out how to tighten their noose: we cycle flaccidly between the three guys (Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramirez) trying to guess which will claim the gold medal for most thuggish misogynist.
Blunt's Rachel might be a soused and broken bit of human wreckage, but she's better than all this: there are too many moments when you wish this raddled stalker had simply been allowed to direct her own film.
Read the full review.
Being faithful isn't always a virtue, especially when it comes to adapting a novel as widely read as Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train. You need to add a little something extra.
Director Tate Taylor (The Help) has created a very neat (if rather too tidy) domestic thriller, but he hasn't exploited the medium to bring anything fresh to the story, riding instead on the solid track the book provides.
An annoying, overblown finale disturbs the balance just as Rachel is beginning to come to terms with the person she has become - or always was. She reckons that, "I'm not the girl I used to be," and it's that particular jigsaw puzzle, made up of Rachel's bad choices and deepest insecurities that, however disturbing at times, draws you along on the winding journey.
Read the full review.
Tate Taylor's single biggest asset is Blunt. Even though we now know she was pregnant at the time of filming, the actress bears little resemblance to the overweight, puffy-faced Rachel of the book. Nonetheless, she makes a thoroughly convincing drunk, a self-loathing shell of the woman we can just about imagine her once to have been.
But you have to care about such a pivotal character in a film, or at least about somebody. Here, just about everyone is either messed up, brutish, smarmy, selfish, over-sexed, or all of the above, so that by the time The Girl On The Train eventually gets to its destination, you wish either that it had taken a different route, or that you hadn't bothered to go along for the ride.
Read the full review.
Director Tate Taylor, who previously adapted Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help into a hit film, brings Hawkins' mystery to life hauntingly with flashbacks and constant shifts back and forward in time. Snobs will probably call The Girl On The Train a popcorn potboiler, but it's a gripping and smart-looking one which keeps us guessing how and why Megan went missing: though Rachel is even more troubled than she initially seems, Megan's husband Scott (The Hobbit's Luke Evans) and psychiatrist Kamal (Zero Dark Thirty's Edgar Ramirez) also have credible motives for wanting rid of her. But the film is driven by Blunt's powerful central performance.
Read the full review.
Emily Blunt excels as the broken-down heroine of Paula Hawkins' bestseller: a fragmented thriller soap opera of sex, booze, violence, and post-feminist empathy.
The Girl on the Train is sexy, brutal, diary-of-a-mad-housewife trash made with a distinctive creamy classy empathy.
Blunt, who plays half her scenes looking like she's holding back tears (or maybe screams), is a luminous actress who's been in need of a role that allows her to get past her slight decorousness, and this is that role. It should, at last, elevate her star.
The Girl on the Train gets less convincing as it goes along - the climax... is borderline camp - yet the movie has just enough intrigue, and has been made with enough craft, to disguise (for a while) the late-night cable-thriller mechanics it ultimately succumbs to.
Read the full review.
A morose, grim and intensely one-dimensional thriller about an alcoholic's struggle to make sense of a close-to-home murder as well as her own mind, this major fall release from Universal can count on a panting public to pack multiplexes upon its October 7 opening. But this train may hit a yellow commercial light sooner than expected down the line.
The lone creative element to command coercive interest here is Elfman's score, which employs sonic currents of tonal irregularities, pulsations and mood instigators rather than melodies, typical tension tropes or any of his trademark gambits from the Tim Burton collaborations. He almost makes the film seem good from time to time.
Read the full review.
While transposing the action from London to New York's outskirts doesn't jar as much as some readers feared, what does distract is Taylor's direction. The biggest sticking point? A key scene set in a tunnel, where repeated use of slow motion feels like an amateurish attempt to replicate the workings of a befuddled mind.
Fortunately, Blunt keeps the film anchored. Playing drunk convincingly is no mean feat, but she cracks it, maintaining our sympathy for a character who has gradually slipped towards becoming a functioning alcoholic. Looking blotchy and unsteady on her feet, she never plays it for laughs but with an air of desperation, as if solving this mystery may be her last chance. But this year's Gone Girl? Not a chance.
Read the full review.
A typical thriller in its set-up, the film also has the added depths of Rachel's alcoholism (and the misery that can bring) to tackle, which director Tate Taylor does with unflinching honesty. Although her blackouts are also used as a plot device, there to serve the mystery by positioning her as an unreliable narrator. Still, it's the thriller aspect that most lets the film down, failing to truly engage or offer enough plausible red herrings to send your mind whirring through different theories as to what could have happened. The twists rarely, if ever, have the impact that were intended.
At the centre of this is Emily Blunt, who despite the recognisable cast around her, is rarely off screen. She's a fine actress, but obviously miscast here. It's not her fault particularly - she simply fails to adequately escape her star power to believably portray such a damaged character.
Read the full review.
Blunt gives Rachel multiple dimensions - we could never view her as just a stewy mess. But the movie's surprise (or perhaps not-so-surprising) twist doesn't serve its lead character well, at best merely justifying her stalkerish behaviour. The revenge she ultimately wreaks is supposed to be grim and sweet, but it comes off more as a plot calculation than something you feel in your gut. For a supposedly dark thriller, The Girl on the Train is just so damn reasonable. Rachel, drunk and sad and fiercely jealous, is allowed to be just a little bit bad. But not nearly bad enough.
Read the full review.
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