Standing up for Nature
This is a very attractive book which deals with a very attractive place which is rich in wildlife. If you are a naturalist visiting Mull then you should read this book, luxuriate in the images, imagine you’ll see all the wildlife and plan your trip ahead of setting off, and take the book with you…
This is a book of photographs of extinct species, so it’s a bit like looking through a very old family album whose subjects you’ve never met but with whom you feel somehow linked through time. All the species are either mammals or birds. Some of the photographs are of poor quality, and many are unsurprisingly…
Iceland has had a general election and the results of it may have implications for whaling, climate change action and the composition of the EU. Iceland is a small country geographically with a very small population – its land area is just under half of that of the UK but its population is less than…
This book, subtitled a memoir, is just that. It’s a series of remembrances of events, mostly to do with nature, place, and protest. I loved it. The ‘place’ is that area which includes the sites of the Greenham Common protest and the Newbury bypass protest. The author was involved in both of these, and the…
If you signed the petition asking the Royals to Rewild then you might be interested in this event on 9 October.
It’s now safe for all to subscribe to Birdwatch magazine – the best birders’ magazine in the UK – as I have written my last regular column after an unbroken 10-year stint. No longer might you turn the page and see my smiling and slightly sweaty face (from a photo taken at the Bird Fair…
Dear Mr Pursglove May I sincerely congratulate you on your appointment as a Parliamentary under Secretary of State to be shared between the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. I guess you will spend quite a bit of time walking between the very ugly building in Petty France (it’s hideous from the outside isn’t…
This is a crime novel – a wildlife crime novel – and the story skips along at a fair pace and made me want to keep turning the pages and discover what happened next. It’s not exactly a whodunnit, but more of a willtheygetdunforit. Alan Stewart is a prolific author on wildlife crime. As an…
It is difficult to feel very worked up about the reshuffle. It is a reshuffle of a pack of knaves and jokers. At DEFRA, George Eustice remains – I feel more favourable to Mr Eustice than do many. It’s not as though I can imagine myself ever voting for him but he has served a…
This is a fine book which I have enjoyed reading on my travels over the last few weeks. I knew I’d find it interesting because it deals with a couple of subjects which are really interesting scientifically and in terms of nature conservation; how wildlife fits in with modern agriculture and which part of a…