Standing up for Nature
This is not a wildlife book, although there is wildlife in it, but it is a reprint of a book first published in 1970 and written by a great naturalist, and this book reminds us, a great writer. Also, the introduction is written by Neville Jones, a friend of Bill Condry and an acquaintance of…
This small book is built around the idea of writing about 24 birds from around the world, but one for each hour of the day. What is the species doing at that particular time? It’s an approach that works partly but not, in my opinion, brilliantly. After all, you need to know something about the…
It seems that I have reviewed 47 books on this blog this year – slightly fewer than in the last couple of years – but a wide-ranging varied selection including many high quality works. If you are looking for a Christmas present for a nature-loving naturalist then this list might give you some ideas and…
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, author and, until recently, a 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 which was formerly published by The Guardian but this is the sixth year it has appeared on this…
This biography of a very distinguished conservationist and politician was written by the subject’s great great nephew. It charts the journey of George McLean (1857-1932) from the family farm in Connecticut to a political career as a Republican Governor of his home state and an 18-year spell in the Senate (1911-29). Those dates show that…
This is a lovely well-written book, but it is only tangentially a wildlife and nature book so I’ll use a few words to tell you about it and leave it at that. The author walks through some of the most attractive parts of Scotland, although mostly in rather dreary autumn weather, and tracks down places…
This is the companion book to the recent TV series. Reading its pages didn’t really take me back to the wonderful moving images of the TV episodes and, I’m afraid, it didn’t take me on very far. There are many great images, and quite a few moving passages of words, but it seemed to me…
This is the story of the recovery of Grey Partridge on the Duke of Norfolk’s land at Peppering on the South Downs (that’s Arundel Castle on the cover). It is a beautifully written tale (by Roger Morgan-Grenville) of a successful species recovery project based on the landowner’s enthusiasm for having a wild partridge shoot for…
This is not a cheap book, nor is it a small book, but it is a very useful and impressive book. It consists of fairly standardised accounts of the approaches to and the state of nature conservation across 26 countries, 25 of which are still members of the European Union (Luxembourg and Malta…
There are 19 species of tern (if you count a couple of noddies and a skimmer, as this book does) in North America. I’ve seen all but one of these species (Aleutian Tern) somewhere or other, and almost all of them in North America, but also almost all of them in Europe and almost all…