Standing up for Nature
Bobby Tulloch was a Shetlander whose fame spread far beyond the isles of his birth. Born on Yell in 1929 he died in 1996. For many of us his name will ever be associated with the Snowy Owls which nested on Fetlar from 1967 to 1975. To those of us who never knew the man…
I have reviewed 31 books on this blog this year – three more than last year. Some of these are sent to me by publishers or authors, some I simply go out and buy. Which books you like is as personal a choice as what music you like. But for what it’s worth, here are…
This book is a review about how animals beget other animals. It must be quite difficult to write about sex in a way that is neither coy nor coarse and which will keep the attention of the reader with whatever moral and personal baggage they might bring to the subject. The author tells us of…
This is a very pleasant book of observations of birds around the author’s home in the Lake District. There is a lot about the flight of Buzzards and the song of Blackbirds. I really liked the author’s watercolours of the views and some birds of the Lake District and nearby areas although I’m not…
This is a book about bird gatherings from seabird colonies to winter roosts. Having spent a frustrating evening recently looking for a Pied Wagtail roost that wasn’t there I enjoyed hearing of Matt Merritt’s successes. A huge flock of birds is a sight to be seen – and sometimes a sound to be heard and…
This book is on the same model as the preceding three volumes: an anthology of seasonal nature writing with a mixture of work from well-known and older writers and some very modern pieces too. I liked Spring, Summer and Autumn and I like Winter too. It felt as though there were more poetry in this…
Helen Pilcher is a science writer and comedian – and not many people can claim that. In this book she looks at the possibility of de-extinction – bringing back extinct species – and searches for the species most worthy of the effort. This book made me laugh (as early as the last four words on…
Did you watch Ed Balls on Strictly Come Dancing last night? Yes, so did I. If you want to learn more about the man behind The Mask, and the moves, then this is the book for you. But it’s also a book to read to understand that politicians are people not cut-out models, and they…
Louise Gray is a former Daily Telegraph environmental journalist. She writes well and this is a book that all should read – but it isn’t simply a duty, it is a gritty pleasure. Louise set off on a year’s journey only to eat meat that she had killed herself – despite being close to being…
I’m not a cat person; I’m not a dog person either; I’m not really a pet person at all. I prefer my animals wild and free, or cooked and on a plate. And so I enter this subject, the impacts of domesticated and feral cats on wildlife, with a slight preference for hearing that cats…