Standing up for Nature
This is a book for everyone, as Mute Swans, the main character in this book, are one of the few species that most people can identify because they are large, tame, white and common. We all know things about swans – they can break your arm just by looking at you (or at least flapping…
This is a very fine book which will, deservedly, be in many lists of ‘books of the year’ for 2022, including in my own. For it deals with important issues and it is very well written. Also, it is in many ways based on three legs, appropriately enough for an ex-gamekeeper, of knowing much…
A very enjoyable read – Derek Gow has good stories galore and not only are they good stories, but he tells them very well. We learn quite a lot about Derek’s past, including his early jobs – an interesting mixture. But much of this book is about keeping animals in captivity, often for conservation purposes,…
This is, in my opinion (and why are you reading this review if you don’t want my opinion?), Benedict Macdonald’s best book to date. Yes, Rebirding (reviewed here) was a very good book, and Orchard (with Nicholas Gates, reviewed here) was perfectly OK, but this is a very, very good book. Nine groups of species:…
https://wainwrightprize.com/news/james-cropper-wainwright-prize-2022-longlists-announced/ Here are three interesting lists of books which have been compiled by these three interesting lists of judges. The 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing longlist is: Otherlands: A World in the Making, Dr Thomas Halliday (Allen Lane) 12 Birds to Save Your Life: Nature’s Lessons in Happiness, Charlie Corbett (Penguin) Goshawk Summer:…
Ian Carter has written often on this blog (see this collection of blogs on Wild Food, and this other collection about getting away from it all, as well as on rewilding, fox hunting and Hen Harrier reintroductions) and I have reviewed his previous books Human Nature, and Red Kite’s Year. Given that, it would be…
The author, as a 10-year-old spent six months in a sanatorium to recover from TB and started to develop his interest in birds, helped (as so many of us were) by the Observer Book of Birds. At school he found three mates who were interested in birds too and they explored the Wirral and its…
This is a sumptuous-looking book – truly beautiful. The photographs, by Jim Holden, are gorgeous. It’s a pleasure to flick through the pages, except that one doesn’t flick, one doesn’t want to miss any of them so even in a quick look through the book one finds oneself turning each page carefully. Iain Parkinson is…
This book is about the author’s patch where he walks regularly and studies the farmland birds that it contains – especially the Grey Partridges and Corn Buntings. The site is on the southern edge of Cambridge and from reading the book it seems as though I have passed it several times on trains. Next…
This is a very attractive and interesting book about a species which, these days, I hardly ever see. When did you last see an Adder? I haven’t seen one for years and yet in my youth they were noticeably commoner. As were signs saying ‘Danger Adders’ which I always thought were put in places (eg…