Cases of bird/poultry flu in wild birds in the UK continue to mount and are at a higher level than last year. It hasn’t gone away. Numbers of birds tested as positive: in a previous blog (click here) I compared the number of records of wild birds testing positive for bird flu up to and…
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This blog’s Books of the Year 2022
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It seems that I have reviewed 55 books on this blog this year – and a cracking bunch they were. Here they are in alphabetical order by author: When There Were Birds by Roy and Lesley Adkins – review Peak District by Penny Anderson – review Wild Green Wonders by Patrick Barkham – review The History of the World in 100…
Stephen Moss’s 2022 Round-up of Nature Books
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, author and course leader of the MA in Travel & Nature Writing at Bath Spa University. Here is his annual round-up of books about wildlife, nature and the environment. @stephenmoss_tv [Mark writes: where I have read and reviewed books mentioned by Stephen I have linked to my reviews]. For almost…
Book review – At the Very End of the Road by Phillip Edwards
I must apologise to the author and publisher of this book for carrying it around with me for months and not settling down to read it properly. I’m not sure why. It was partly that the cover didn’t engage me. It was partly that I’d never heard of the author. It was partly that I…
Book review – The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole
This is an exploration of an overlooked but very British habitat – the temperate rainforest. It’s understandable that it is much neglected, there’s not that much of it left and it is, as the name suggests, found in the soggiest places in the north and west of the UK. Its denizens are the fungi, ferns,…
Book review – Where the Wild Flowers Grow by Leif Bersweden
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This is one of those ‘questing’ books – on a bicycle this time. The author visits special places for plants in the UK and Ireland, with some interesting botanists, naturalists and landowners, and tells us about the places, people and wildlife. It’s a winning recipe and this is a very fine example of the genre….
Sunday book review – Land of Milk and Honey by Jamie Blackett
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…
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…