I enjoyed this book, but then I went into it expecting more in the way of entertainment than instruction, and I was right. It is entertaining, provided that you have the mindset to be entertained by views that you don’t share (which I do) or you embrace with enthusiasm the views of the author (which…
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Sunday book review – The Birdwatcher’s Wife by Gayle Smith Padgett
There are quite a lot of books about Big Years – when birders try to see a high number of species of birds in a calendar year. These books are quite similar as they usually have some introduction about why the author, usually male, bothered, and then an account of the ups and downs of…
Sunday book review – Beauty of the Beast by Alan Marshall
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This is a companion volume to The Artful Hare and is dedicated to the memory of Robert Gillmor. A book full of illustrations of British mammals by nearly 80 artists, including Gillmor himself. A feast of illustrations from gifted printmakers – what’s not to like? I came across some names I had not previously noticed,…
Sunday book review – The Role of Birds in World War One by Nicholas Milton
This is Nicholas Milton’s third book this year – I’m tempted to say ‘so far’ – after The Role of Birds in World War Two and The Secret Life of the Adder. That’s quite an output considering that each of them is well-researched, well-written and covers areas where the author has quite a specialised interest and…
Sunday book review – Island to Island by Sally Mills
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This is an account of an almost 2-year stint wardening the nature reserve on Aride Island in the Seychelles. Idyllic tropical paradise or small island community with plenty of difficult characters to navigate? Or both? Sally Mills worked for the RSPB in Somerset and, with her partner, she took the opportunity to see the sand,…
Sunday book review – The History of the World in 100 Plants by Simon Barnes
A sumptuously illustrated and beautifully written volume with accounts of 100 plants and their roles in human existence. This is one of those fairly rare books that is good to look at and even better to read. If you have forgotten what a brilliant writer is Simon Barnes then this book is a fine reminder….
Rishi Sunak and the grouse moors
Our new PM does seem like a welcome relief from Liz Truss but that is more a commentary on how dire things looked last week rather than how brilliant they look now. Remember, Mr Sunak is from a grouse-shooting constituency – Richmond in Yorkshire. And he is, according to Shooting Times (a not always reliable…
Therese Coffey lodges in Defra on her fall from the top
I dreaded this as yesterday afternoon passed. Who would get Defra? Might Sunak bring back George Eustice? Might he even bring back Michael Gove? Or was it just possible he would notice that Dr Coffey had spent some time in Defra and, to rub in her fall from Deputy PM, give her Defra to manage?…
Bird flu update
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Did you hear Katie-jo Luxton on BBC Radio 4 Today on Monday morning? Worth a listen and well done to Today for continuing to feature news (all of it bad) about bird flu in the absence of Defra saying much about what’s happening (click here at 08:45am, near the end of the programme). I was…
Sunday book review – Into the Red curated by Kit Jewitt and Mike Toms
Following the successful publication of Red Sixty Seven in 2020 this is another run at the same group of species (with a net three additions) – those on the UK Red List because of their conservation status. Profits from the sale of this volume go to the BTO for work on such species and to…