Book review – Legacy by Dieter Helm

I’m not a great fan of economics because it always seems to explain things in retrospect rather than predict them in prospect but you can write that off as hauteur from one trained as a scientist if you like. But I always like Dieter Helm’s books and in 2019 I chose his Green and Prosperous…

Book review – Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons

  This is a fine book about a very interesting species. I’ve seen Wild Boar in continental Europe (Netherlands, France and Spain) but not yet in the UK. Decades ago, in the Camargue, I sometimes travelled the roads after dark in a flimsy ancient Citroen Deux-Chevaux and I always thought that any close encounters of…

Book review – Seabirds Count by Daisy Burnell et al.

  The British Isles provide nest sites for internationally important proportions of the North Atlantic biogeographical area seabird populations and, for several species, high proportions of global populations. If you want to see large numbers of nesting Manx Shearwaters, Great Skuas and Gannets then this is the place to come. And so it is concerning…

Book review – Local by Alastair Humphreys

I very much enjoyed this book, and when it is published on Thursday I  think many readers of this blog will like it too. Alastair Humphreys is a traveller and adventurer who has travelled the world but in this book he still has mini-adventures and is always travelling, it’s just that he chooses about 50…

Book review – Wild Shetland by Brydon Thomason

  This book is a visual treat. Photographs of Shetland’s wildlife, mostly birds and mammals, through the seasons. And the photographs are exceptionally fine. As you might expect, there are Otters, Bonxies and Puffins but also a range of unusual and rare birds and sea mammals, many other Shetland seabirds (including the wonderful Storm Petrels…