This book has a Polish author and many stories of Polish ornithologists, artists and writers. Since I first visited Poland last year, for a family reason, I was predisposed to these parts of the book. I enjoyed hearing of painter Jozef Chelmonski and then Googling his works, and greatly enjoying some of them and not being particularly impressed by others. But I was grateful for the introduction.
As is often the case elsewhere in Europe, the tales of birdwatchers in the 1939-45 world war are particularly moving. If you are a German birdwatcher in East Prussia, and the Red Army is heading for your patch, when do you stop birding…?
There are some parts of the book that I found a bit flat but if you don’t know where Ian Fleming got the name for 007 or what Mitterand had for his last meal then you won’t find those bits flat. But flat bits are OK in a book that has a fairly high plateau as its predominant level and some greater peaks sticking out from the plateau. I enjoyed the book.
Lubienski writes well, with clarity and tenderness (and that that comes through must owe something to the translation by Bill Johnson). It’s a book into which one can dip and one that can be read from start to finish.
I thought the excellent text deserved a less irritating, and slightly classier, jacket design.
The Birds they Sang: birds and people in life and art by Stanislaw Lubienski is published by Westbourne Press.
Remarkable Birds by Mark Avery is published by Thames and Hudson – for reviews see here.
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Irritating jacket design? In what way?
Come on – look at it – it’s sooo irritating and completely lacking in class. I notice he didn’t mention the illustrations either – but they probably made him sick to his stomach. I can only apologise!