Category: Book review

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 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?…

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…

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…

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…