Category: BOOK REVIEWS

The book, Tarka the Otter, will be 100 years of age next year. This book is the tale of Otters, and waterways in the part of Devon where Tarka was set, and written. This is, in my opinion, Ian Parsons’s best book to date. Ian’s Introduction is very good. He set the scene really well…

I’m a fan of Peter Marren’s writing because he knows so much about so many things and can tell a tale so well. He seems to have an almost endless knowledge into which he can dip and he has a knack of presenting that knowledge in an accessible and interesting way. As you read his…

  Scott Weidensaul visits successful conservation projects in order to celebrate achievements and to try to dispel feelings of gloom about the natural world. I enjoyed reading about these dozen successes, some of which were, for me, close to home (bird of prey recovery in the UK and rewilding at Knepp Castle in Sussex) whereas…

Little did I think that after reviewing the CNHS’s 70th anniversary book (click here) I’d be revisiting them again so soon but this book, describing the wildlife of Middlewick Ranges is now rather topical. In the recent Wild Justice report (authored by Kiera Chapman, Malcom Tait and Rob Davies – click here), Middlewick Ranges is…

Who doesn’t like whales? If you’ve seen whales I would guess that the memory remains strong in your mind and that it brings you pleasure. I’ve seen a few whales in my time, from Iceland to the Azores, and off the Pacific coasts of the USA and of Australia. I’m really glad that I’ve seen…

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England is 100. Happy Birthday CPRE! If CPRE were a person then its centenary would be marked by paeans of praise and with the knowledge that there was little time to add to the lifetime of achievement. But for an organisation this is just a significant milestone between…

There are a lot of fungi in the world. Of the 75,000ish species of animals, plants, fungi, algae and a few protists that are recognised as occurring in the UK about one in five, 15,000 of them, are fungi. If we knew more about them then that proportion would probably rise rather than fall. And…

This book isn’t quite what it seems, but on first glance it is a very simple and moderately engaging account of the birds heard or seen in a Wiltshire garden on 6 May 2025. The author spends 17 hours up and active and uses the Merlin app to help identify all the calls and songs….

For those of us who were accustomed to turn first to the Twitcher column in British Wildlife the loss of it was a heartfelt blow. Here then is a lightly edited compilation of the later columns from 2004-2023 to add to the earlier collection of 1990-2003 writings. Humour is a personal matter, and acerbic humour…

This is an American book with lots of mentions of backyards and strange creatures (most of which are bigger than their UK counterparts). But I thought it might be of interest and it certainly was. The starting point of many books about wildlife and gardens in the UK is a rather traditional garden with flower…