I knew I’d like this book, despite its depressing subject, and I did. I’m a fan of Lucy Siegle’s writing on environmental and consumer matters, I’ve heard her say interesting things on panels and I’ve had a very few brief chats with her. She would have been the perfect chair for the otherwise all-female panel…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review: Bird photographer of the Year (collection 3).
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I was one of the judges for these awards – the judging was in early January and the book is out and was selling well at the Bird Fair last weekend. That’s pretty good going. The cover photograph, of American Flamingos at a flamingo sanctuary in Madrid, and by Pedro Jarque Krebs from Peru, was…
Book review – Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich
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This book was published quite a long time ago – 1999 in hardback – but it deals with a topical subject and I noticed it on sale in the bookstores of Yellowstone National Park a few weeks ago. I almost bought it then, particularly as there was a Raven running around on the roof…
Review pre-Bird Fair
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…
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,…