This is like a book, but it’s a supplement to a journal: Sandgrouse, the journal of OSME, the Ornithological Society of the Middle East. This is the 50th anniversary issue. I have spent about four days of my life in the OSME region which stretches from Egypt to Kazakhstan and from quite large chunks of…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – Wilding by Isabella Tree
This book, out of 40+ I reviewed in 2018, was the title I chose as my wildlife book of the year – I recommend it highly. You can buy this book from Bookshop.org and I have set up a booklist to make that easy through this link https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/MarkAvery Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org…
Sunday book review – The Knowledge by GWCT
It was very sporting of GWCT to send me a copy of this book to review (I had to ask, but they sent it very quickly). Readers of this blog may well have their own copies of this book already but I thought it worth a brief review for those whose bookshelves lack it at…
Sunday book review – A Natural Selection by Bill Meek
This is a charming book, but lest that sounds a bit condescending (it wasn’t meant to be) it is also a cracking good read. Bill Meek is an ex-CEH ecologist who wrote a column for his local paper, the Cleethorpes Chronicle, for three and a half years. In that column he aimed to inform, entertain…
Book review – When the Last Lion Roars by Sara Evans
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Reviewed by Ian Carter This new book describes Lion conservation today and how we have arrived at the current situation. It rattles along at a lively pace and sets out the information very clearly, making it easy to assimilate. The writing style is akin to that of a well-written, well-researched, newspaper article – highly…
Bank Holiday Monday Book review – 52 European wildlife weekends by James Lowen
This is a simple idea – where would it be good to be in Europe watching wildlife on each weekend of the year? It’s a good idea. This weekend we should be in Matera, southern Italy with Europe’s largest Lesser Kestrel colony and in next year’s European City of Culture. We got here…
Sunday book review – On the Moor by Richard Carter
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This is a lovely book. I really enjoyed it – partly, I suspect, because I have a similar sense of humour to that of the author and also because I am generally curious about life. The author goes for walks on the moors above Hebden Bridge (yes those moors) and his mind wanders widely,…
Book review – Swifts in a Tower by David Lack
This is a reprint of the classic 1956 book by David Lack but, as in the updated version of his Life of the Robin, this is updated whilst maintaining the original text. David Lack’s study of Swifts took place in the tower of the Oxford University Museum and has continued to this day. Lack’s…
Book review – Eagle Country by Sean Lysaght
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Reviewed by Ian Carter Seán Lysaght is a poet and writer and he brings his poet’s eye for observation to this exploration of his home country of Mayo and the wider west coast of Ireland. Spurred on by an interest in eagles and the tragic history of the two species in Ireland he trawls the…
Book review – Mrs Pankhurt’s Purple Feather by Tessa Boase
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This is a very interesting book which I recommend highly as a challenging read. The author takes us back over a century to Victorian and Edwardian London where in nasty little workshops the women working in the millinery trade produced the hats to adorn the heads of rich women – many of these hats…