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…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – Natural Habitats & Wildlife Gardening by Shaun McCoshum
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…
Exhibition “The Birdman of Auschwitz: Science and the Failure of Conscience”
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(Oświęcim, Poland) — A new exhibition, “The Birdman of Auschwitz: Science and the Failure of Conscience,” will open April 30 at the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism and Radicalization (ARCHER) at House 88, at the former home of Commandant Rudolf Höss. In partnership with British naturalist, historian and author of The Birdman of Auschwitz, Nicholas Milton, it explores…
Sunday book review – The Ascent of Mammals by John Reilly
This book, like the author’s 2018 The Ascent of Birds – reviewed here, is a very clear and interesting explanation of a complicated and technical story. How did mammals evolve into species as different as the Duck-billed Platypus, Blue Whale, Vampire Bat and you and me? The answers are here and they appear to be…
Sunday book review – Wild Pavements by Amanda Tuke
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This is a book about urban wildlife and although the author says that she majors on plants and knows less about other groups she is very clearly competent across a wide range. She is based in London and each of the eight two-chapter sections of the book sees her turning her back on St. Pauls…
Sunday book review – Where to Watch Wildlife in Britain by Low-carbon Transport by Megan Shersby, Heather Devey, Rebecca Gibson and Dan Rouse
This book has a laudable aim, to wit to nudge us to travel less in cars, but it’s quite a big ambition in a country with poor public transport, and for a leisure activity where some of the best places are out of town and somewhat remote. But here you will find a variety of…
Sunday book review – The Pied Woodpeckers by Gerard Gorman
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Following on from The Wryneck (published 2022, click here for my review) and The Green Woodpecker (published 2023, click here for my review) woodpecker expert and enthusiast, Gerard Gorman, brings you a volume which deals with five black and white woodpeckers (Lesser Spotted, Middle Spotted, Great Spotted, Syrian, and White-backed), two of which occur in…
Sunday book review – CNHS70 edited by Sarah Manning
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This is an excellent book produced by a local natural history society to celebrate its 70 years of existence. It takes 70 local species and tells the reader interesting things about them. We meet the Red Squirrels of Mersea Island, the coastal Brent Goose, Essex Skipper, Fisher’s Estuarine Moth, the Abberton Weevil, Giant Puffball, a…
Sunday book review – Love is a Toad by Lucy Lapwing
The author of this book, Lucy, is a friend and colleague with whom I’ve worked at Wild Justice and on other projects and I was nervous about whether I would get on with this book. After all, she is a young person, the same age as my kids, and young people see the world in…
Sunday book review – Pan-species Listing by Graeme Lyons
If your New Year resolution is anything to do with seeing more wildlife, becoming a little better at identifying what you see or getting to the top of the list of individuals who have seen the most species of wildlife in the UK then this book is for you. The author is widely recognised as…