Category: BOOK REVIEWS

Sunday Book review – The Worshipful Companies by Stuart Medland

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Reviewed by Ian Carter This landscape format book is the second in a series on Norfolk wildlife by the same author. It deals with the Norfolk coast and combines photographs of wildlife (mostly birds) and poems, with a short accompanying text. The ‘worshipful companies’ bit is his comparison of the different bird species with medieval…

Guest blog – New Year, New Moon Bird by Kerri ni Dochartaigh

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Kerri ní Dochartaigh is a writer who grew up during the Troubles that ravaged Ireland. She lives in a very northwesterly part of the island, where the sky is grey and unbearably beautiful. She writes about nature, literature, place, beauty, grieving and healing. She writes at her kitchen table with the back door open; even…

Sunday book review – The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell

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Reviewed by Ian Carter It is increasingly widely recognised that nature is good for us. Most of us instinctively know this to be true and the science is gradually getting to grips with how this works; the biochemistry of a visit to the local woods and its impacts on our health and well-being. Science is…

Sunday book review – Noor by Andy Rouse and Aditya Singh

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I’ve never seen a Tiger in the wild and I probably never will. But this book introduces the reader to one tigress, Noor, and her family, and the place she lives, Ranthambhore National Park. This is a feast of images and a pleasure to hold in one’s hands and turn the pages. Aren’t Tigers amazing?…

Sunday book review – A Field Guide to the Carnivores of the World by Luke Hunter and Priscilla Barrett

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This is an updated edition of a book which covers many of the most charismatic speces on this planet. From Polar Bear to Least Weasel (that’s our Weasel Mustela nivalis) this book beautifully illustrates mammals with sharp teeth from the biggest to the smallest. The illustrations are very attractive and cover many subspecies and a…

This blog’s books of the year 2018

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This blog has reviewed 41 books this year (and many thanks to Ian Carter for his reviews).  My selection of the ‘top 4’ books of the year is as follows; Number 4 A tour-de-force of clear writing about a technical subject. Deserves to be widely read.  Which birds are related to which others most closely?…

Guest blog – Nature Books 2018 by Stephen Moss

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Stephen Moss is one of Britain’s leading nature writers, broadcasters and wildlife television producers. He was the founding producer of Springwatch, and has written a stream of wildlife books (eg see   Tweet of the Day (with Brett Westwood), Natural Histories (also with Brett Westwood), and Wild Kingdom). A lifelong naturalist, he is passionate about communicating…

Sunday book review – The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicholson

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Reviewed by Ian Carter Adam Nicolson’s father bought the Shiant Isles in the Hebrides when he was twenty: £1,300 for 500 acres including a rat-infested bothy and, at the right time of year, no small number of breeding seabirds. We are told he loved the place more than anywhere else in the world, a love…

Book review – Swifts and Swallows by Mike Unwin

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Reviewed by Ian Carter This is another book in the burgeoning RSPB Spotlight series, this time dealing with a duo of well-known and superficially similar species. I can see the merits of covering both birds in the same book but it seems odd that the House Martin misses out. It shares the association with our…