Aldo Leopold was a wildlife philosopher and guru, and is widely seen to have been a highly influential leader of environmental thinking in the USA. This book, written by one of his daughters, is a tribute to Leopold and an account of the family times in the shack in the Wisconsin woods which features in…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – Songs of Love & War by Dominic Couzens
It’s quite difficult to tell what this book is about from its title, its prologue or from its dust jacket. You might be misled into thinking that it is mostly about bird song, but it isn’t. It dips into various aspects of bird behaviour and mixes these accounts with the author’s personal observations of birds…
Sunday book review – The Butterflies of Sussex by Michael Blencowe and Neil Hulme
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This is a superb book and of interest to a much wider audience than those who are lucky enough to live in the butterfly-rich county of Sussex. The photographs are wonderful, the text is interesting, the graphics are intelligible and the data are voluminous. Everyone involved with this book deserves to feel proud; and to…
Sunday book review – Client Earth by James Thornton and Martin Goodman
Some of my best friends over the years have been lawyers – although, come to think of it, not that many – but I have always had a mistrust of the role of the courts in conservation and environmental matters. But over the last few years, in a time when government has no intention of…
Sunday book review – Birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East: an annotated checklist by Dominic Mitchell
We may be leaving the EU but we can’t turn our back on the geographic region in which ‘our’ birds sit (and fly). This book lists our birds – all 1,148 species recorded in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (including Iran and the Arabian Peninsula). It is a phenomenal work of summary by…
Sunday book review – The Shark and the Albatross by John Aitchison
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Reviewed by Ian Carter John Aitchison is, justifiably, one of our most acclaimed wildlife filmmakers, having worked on well-known series such as Frozen Planet, Yellowstone, Hebrides and Springwatch. This book tells the background story to some of his most memorable trips. If you watch these programmes regularly then some of the scenes he describes will…
Sunday book review – Foxes Unearthed by Lucy Jones
I enjoyed reading this book (which is now out in paperback). This book is about Foxes: hunted Foxes, urban Foxes, hen-eating Foxes, Foxes in literature and country lore. Foxes in our heads and in our hearts. It’s a well-written largely affectionate but not sentimental look at Foxes from lots of angles and it’s a very…
Sunday book review – What Good are Birds by Antonio Sandoval Rey
Reviewed by Ian Carter Not What Birds are Good? as I initially thought having misread the title but What Good are Birds?, a somewhat broader and altogether more interesting question. His initial answer (to an inquisitorial family passing his regular sea-watching spot in Galicia, north-west Spain) was rather good I thought – ‘for flying’…
Sunday book review – Birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East: a photographic guide by Frederic Jiguet and Aurelien Audevard
This is a photographic field guide which covers all European bird species including vagrants and some species which have not yet occurred but are quite likely to do so eventually. In one slimmish volume the reader has images (over 2200 of them) of every species of bird (860) they might see on the continent….
Sunday book review – Kingfishers by David Chandler
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This book, published on Thursday, is a celebration of one of our favourite birds; everyone loves a Kingfisher. If you are out with other birdwatchers and one of you spots a Kingfisher then there is always a note of excitement as the bird is mentioned – ‘Kingfisher!!’. Nobody ever announces a Kingfisher with a…