What’s the first word that pops into your head when you hear the name Neville Chamberlain? Was it ‘appeasement’? Or ‘Piece of paper’? Or maybe ‘Peace for our time’? Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement was well-meaning but, in retrospect (and to be fair, at the time, in the minds of many), was fatally flawed. It didn’t…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – Letters to the Earth edited by Anna Hope, Jo McInnes and Kay Michael
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This book is cheap – so it’s not a big risk to buy one! And all royalties go to support creative campaigning for environmental justice. It’s an anthology of writing (poems and short essays) about the environmental state we’re in organised in sections: Love, Loss, Emergence, Hope and Action, and with a foreword by Emma…
Sunday book review – Grassland plants of the British and Irish lowlands by Peter Stroh et al.
I’m no botanist, so for all I know this book could be riddled with awful errors, but it is a lovely, lovely book. In a 400-page book, 300 of the pages are given over to about 100 species accounts; each with a distribution map, a photograph of the species, a photograph of the habitat and…
Sunday book review – Tracking the Highland Tiger by Marianne Taylor
This is a well-written book and there is much to be enjoyed within its pages. If I am ever on a long coach ride from Victoria coach station (they do crop up in the book) and find myself sitting next to the author I feel we could have a good chat. There is lots of…
Sunday book review – Pat the Caterpillar by Rebecca and Nicola Bailey
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This is an attractive book about butterflies written by one of the leading young nature enthusiasts. Rebecca’s seen one more butterfly species in her garden than I have in mine so I am envious of her knowledge and good fortune. This book – the first of many? – concentrates on the Small White Butterfly. This…
Sunday book review – On the Marsh by Simon Barnes
Review by Lyn Ebbs When I see that the subtitle of a book contains the word ‘year’, especially a book about wildlife, I’ve come to expect a 12-month chase around the country (or the world) in pursuit of a complete list of some type of animal or a heroic battle against a deadline to create…
Sunday book review – 21st Century Yokel by Tim Cox
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This is a rambling book – in a good way. It meanders around the countryside of Devon and East Anglia looking at places and issues for a while and moving on to the next interesting issue. That’s fine by me. Is it a nature book? Who cares! There’s certainly quite a lot of nature in…
Sunday book review – A Wild Child’s Guide to Endangered Animals by Millie Marotta
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This is a delightful book for children, but will appeal to all ages, and would be particularly suitable for parents (or grandparents) to look at with their younger relatives. Millie Marotta is responsible for both the illustrations and the text – and both are very good. The format is pretty simple; full page illustration, and…
Not a review of the Red Kite’s Year by Ian Carter and Dan Powell
This isn’t a book review as I wrote the Foreword to this book and so can hardly be unbiased. It’s a very good book – and pitched just right to have something to offer to both the expert and the beginner. And Dan Powell’s illustrations are just lovely. Ian Carter has reviewed books and written…
Bank Holiday Monday book review – Dancing with Bees by Brigit Strawbridge Howard
This is a book about rediscovering, and reconnecting with, nature, as an adult. The preface sets the book up well and establishes the engaging tone. The author rediscovers all sorts of wildlife but bees are the co-stars of this account. I know Brigit a little, and this book is just what I expected: enthusiastic and…