Standing up for Nature
Reviewed by Ian Carter This is a book I probably wouldn’t have read had I not been asked to review it. The name Willughby was not a familiar one – other than a vague notion that he, and his close associate John Ray, had something to do with birds a very long time ago….
Yesterday was World Curlew Day. Everybody likes Curlews these days. GWCT and Curlew Country want your money to save the Curlew, BTO want your money to save the Curlew and RSPB is spending over a million pounds over five years on Curlews but isn’t gagging for your money it seems! Wow! The author of Curlew…
This is a book for the intelligent and inquisitive birder – which may limit its reach somewhat – but also for students of evolutionary biology and all those who have wondered at how we have ended up, in any part of the world, with the mix of species we see today. It is a…
Reviewed by Ian Carter My wife picked up a copy of this short book at a recent Natural England event where Ralph was giving a talk. To be honest I was rather surprised they let him inside the building given how rude he has been about them – including that logo with the roof. The…
This book is a real treat – full of clear, crisp, concise linocuts by Robert Gillmor. Is Robert Gillmor the nation’s favourite nature artist? Who knows? But over a period of seven decades he has been publishing drawings, paintings and linocuts with subjects primarily drawn from the natural world. This book of linocuts is…
This is the best book on the state of nature since George Monbiot’s Feral and deserves to be read just as widely. It’s been quite a long time in the making. I interviewed Mark Cocker for Behind the Binoculars back in January 2014 and at the same time he interviewed me and a few…
Sometimes a book arrives in the post, out of the blue, and I wonder why I was sent it. That applied to this book although I wasn’t complaining as it’s beautiful and has an interesting story to tell. The ‘people’s mountain’ refers to the Kinder Mass Trespass of 1932 which hastened (or just perhaps delayed,…
I’m no botanist (have I said that before recently? – yes) but this book, had it existed decades ago, might well have won me over. Peter Marren writes with such knowledge and affection for plants, and in such a modest and winning manner that few could help wanting to be a plant spotter in this…
Reviewed by Ian Carter There are plenty of books about wild food these days, describing how to find it and how to make best use of it. This one deals with a comprehensive selection of plants, including seaweeds. It also includes a handful of fungi (just 7 species) but, rather oddly I thought, it ignores…
I’m no botanist (and I can produce references if needed) but I loved this book – and many of the readers of this blog will love it too. The idea is simple – see all the orchids of Britain in a year. Do you think the author succeeded or not? If not, how close…