Standing up for Nature
This is a collection of essays about rewilding. I wrote what has been placed as the last chapter so I am reviewing this book without considering the last chapter. I hadn’t seen any of the other dozen chapters until the book arrived in the post last week. The chapters have been brought together by Ian…
This is the final book in Alan Stewart’s trilogy of the exploits of Detective Sergeant Bob McKay – see reviews of Calls from the Wild and Cruel Intentions. The author wrote several non-fiction books (eg Killing by Proxy) about wildlife crime before turning to the freedom that fiction gives an author to fill in the…
We are asked ‘Have you ever wondered what entomologists do?‘ and I have, and I enjoyed finding out what this eminent entomologist (a vice-president of the Royal Entomological Society) has done. It seems to me, he has had a lot of fun and his enthusiasm is infectious. But his main field of research has…
We all need hope, and one of the ways of finding it is to realise that many apparently hopeless environmental problems have been sorted out by human ingenuity and determination. That’s what this book does with five detailed examples: smog, ozone depletion, pesticides, lead and those greenhouse gases called HFCs. And the last chapter makes…
Do not be fooled by the jokey title, shortish length and smallish pages, this is not a lightweight book – it is a very solid one. By the time I had read the four-page Introduction I was hooked and a gross of pages later I had become engrossed. This is a very, very good book….
This is a stimulating book which takes an independent view of Scotland’s Highland landscape. The author challenges the current orthodoxy (is it?) that most of the Highlands was not so long ago wooded and that restoring woodland cover, the great Forest of Caledon, should be an aim of rewilding and nature conservation. No matter…
This book has little to do with wildlife and its conservation, just like two of its characters, Therese Coffey and her bestie, Liz Truss. However, unlike the late unlamented Secretaries of State for the Environment, Henry Morris, is a friend of wildlife and a friend of mine so I’ll happily plug his latest excellent book…
I sometimes wonder how many Guardian journalists have been for a walk in the countryside (without ear pods) in the last week. I guess the Guardian’s ignorant aloofness is better than the Telegraph’s ignorant familiarity although it’s a close run thing. At least the Guardian has a daily, tiny but valuable, account of some…
There are about 144 cuckoo species across the world including anis, coucals and roadrunners (I love the Greater Roadrunner!). Not all of them, by any means, are brood parasites but understandably that habit features prominently in this book as it is biologically fascinating and leads the Common Cuckoo into many cultural references. The six…
It’s autumn and this weekend is Fungus Day in the UK and so one’s mind turns to the Kingdom of Fungi – just forget plants and animals for a day. This is one of a series of Little Books which are little books but they pack a big punch. They will remind many readers of…