Author: Mark

Born Bristol, UK Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats. NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011

Guest blog – We need to talk about ALAN by Jonathan Wallace

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After studying zoology at university Jonathan was involved in ornithological research and conservation for a number of years in France, Scotland and West Africa.  Subsequently he has spent most of his career as an environmental consultant, assisting industry in managing its environmental impacts.  Wildlife, particularly insects, remain his first love however and he is a…

Sunday book review – The Lie of the Land by Guy Shrubsole

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This is Guy Shrubsole’s best book yet, despite the success of his excellent Who Owns England (reviewed here) and his book about soggy, slippery woods, The Lost Rainforests of Britain (reviewed here) because this book is about everything! It covers a lot of ground, all of it, because it is about land use and who…

Sunday book review – The Volunteers by Carol Donaldson

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This is the story of the relationships between the author and a team of conservation volunteers. It is a tender account of those relationships and has some very, very well-written and moving passages. I liked it a lot. However, although these are conservation volunteers, nature is the backdrop to this book rather than a leading…

Sunday book review – Enjoying Birdwatching in Lancashire and Cumbria by David Hindle

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I wrote the foreword for this book (the author must have caught me on a good day) but it was published last year so I have been rather dilatory in giving it the little breath of publicity here that it most certainly deserves. The title is self-explanatory but few vaguely similar regional books use the…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 25 by John Page

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John Page was born in the West Riding, a proud Yorkshireman and was taught to play cricket left-handed “’cos it flummoxes t’ bowler, and buggers up t’ field.” He went to university in London and Leeds, and enjoyed (most of the time) attempting to teach young people that there’s a big wide world beyond the…