I’ve reviewed Spring and Summer here, and liked them, so it won’t be a surprise that I enjoyed Autumn too. The book follows the same model as the earlier two seasons – an anthology of writings from famous writers mixed in with offerings from current writers. It’s still a good model and worked as well…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – Badgered to Death by Dominic Dyer
I enjoyed reading this book and I strongly recommend it to you. This is a powerful and stimulating read and it’s bang up to date with the important issue it discusses. It is written by a passionate insider with years of experience. The narrative is pacey and exciting. This book arrived with me on Thursday…
Sunday book review – Britain’s Birds by Rob Hume et al.
This book is very good. Why would you need another bird identification guide or field guide? Because this one is very good! This is a quite straight forward bird identification guide – there isn’t much mucking about with other information – and that’s good. It covers birds you might see in Britain and Ireland –…
Sunday book review – Where the wild thyme blew by Peter Marren
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I’m a big fan of Peter Marren’s writing – his Rainbow Dust was (and is) a lovely book which I listed as my #2 book of the year for 2015. Peter has also written a number of Guest Blogs here and I hope he will write some more. This book is one that the author…
Sunday book review – Summer edited by Melissa Harrison
It must be summer because I am picking elderflowers from which to make champagne. Spring is over, and if you are a birder then you are now in the position of suspecting that any passage wader on your local patch is already heading south after a nest failure (it’s really already autumn!). This anthology is…
Sunday book review – The Life of The Robin by David Lack
This book is a classic and has been reissued with an introduction from David Lindo (whose National Bird Vote firmly established the Redbreast as our national bird) and gorgeous artwork by Robert Gillmor (as in the 1965 edition but with a spanking new cover). And this re-issue also has an account of the importance of…
Sunday Book review – No Way But Gentlenesse by Richard Hines
You may remember the film Kes (director, Ken Loach) if you are a certain age, and you may well have had to study the book A Kestrel for a Knave at school if you are of another certainly younger age. In either case you will associate the name Barry Hines with that story of a…
Bank Holiday Monday book review – The Keartons by John Bevis
I haven’t taken a photograph of a bird for c35 years so nature photography isn’t my passion. This may be because my father was a keen, amateur landscape photographer and sons tend either fully to absorb or shun their father’s interests. But I do remember, perhaps before reaching teenage years, going with Dad to an…
Sunday book review – The Fight for Beauty by Fiona Reynolds
I opened this book with some trepidation because I wanted to like it and wasn’t sure that I would: I needn’t have worried. This book gives a thorough and somewhat engaging account of the protection of landscape beauty in the UK and is written by someone who has played a major and positive part in…
Sunday book review – Nightingales in November by Mike Dilger
This book has a clever title and a lovely cover by Darren Woodhead. Its author is also a lovely guy: a good broadcaster, great conversationalist and a real laugh. However, despite all that, I’m not won over by the book. It is also based on a clever idea – take a dozen birds and write…