Reviewed by Ian Carter One of the joys of reviewing books is that you end up reading titles that would otherwise pass you by. Of course, it doesn’t always work out well, but I had high hopes for this one having read about all the awards and commendations it has received. Before reading…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Bank holiday book review – Images from a Warming Planet by Ashley Cooper
Comments Off on Bank holiday book review – Images from a Warming Planet by Ashley Cooper
This book is a tour de force in so many ways. The photographs, many of which are superb, are all taken by the author, and the words are all his and the book is published by him. This is the result of years of travel and is subtitled ‘One man’s mission to document climate change…
Bank holiday book review – Flock Together by B. J. Hollars
Comments Off on Bank holiday book review – Flock Together by B. J. Hollars
Reviewed by Ian Carter I tried very hard to like this book and, in the end, despite the rather relentless ‘chatty’ style of writing, I think I just about got there. It’s certainly a hard book to categorise. In part, it’s a history of recently extinct birds in the USA and the individuals…
Sunday book review – Flight Lines by Mike Toms
Comments Off on Sunday book review – Flight Lines by Mike Toms
For me, this book is almost a perfect 10 – let’s give it a 9.6. I was handed this book by its author at the Bird Fair at the weekend and, after saying thank you, said I’d put it on the pile of books to review. But having unwrapped it from its cellophane I dipped…
Not really a book review – Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham
Chris Packham is a great guy – I admire his toughness and his persistence. But he gets an awful lot of very nasty flak from the shooters. Remember the Countryside Alliance called for the BBC to drop their best wildlife presenter a couple of years ago – well, don’t think that has gone away,…
Bird Fair books – some books already reviewed here
Comments Off on Bird Fair books – some books already reviewed here
The authors’ forum at the Bird Fair is packed with good talks by authors of good books on each of the three days. Here are examples of talks by authors of books that have been reviewed here: Friday 1315-1400, Ian Newton, Farming and Birds Saturday 1415-1500,…
Bird Fair books – review – RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife (2nd edition)
Comments Off on Bird Fair books – review – RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife (2nd edition)
Reviewed by Ian Carter This is clearly a book that has stood the test of time, deemed worthy of a new edition almost ten years on from its initial publication. After a few pages of introduction, the bulk of the book is taken up by the species accounts, roughly equally split into vertebrates, invertebrates…
Bird Fair books – review – Farming and Birds by Ian Newton
I sometimes wonder how many New Naturalists are read rather than collected as an investment – well this one should be read. Ian Newton has never produced a duff book – his works are characterised by clarity and suffused by a deep knowledge of the biology of the subjects on which he writes. This one…
Bird Fair books – review – ReWild: the art of returning to nature by Nick Baker
Reviewed by Ian Carter This new book is not about the Monbiot version of re-wilding but its personal equivalent – the ‘re-wilding of the soul’ rather than the landscape. Lynx, Wolves and Beavers do get a few mentions but it is much more about what people can do to get closer to nature in everyday…
Bird Fair books – review – The Art of Mindful Birdwatching by Claire Thompson
If, like me, you’ve heard quite a lot about mindfulness but don’t really know what it is, and if, like me, you are interested in birds, then this might well be the book for you. I found it interesting and read it all the way through. This book is a bit like most management courses…