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…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
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…
Sunday book review – Spring edited by Melissa Harrison
A collection of writings about spring – what could be nicer? This book is one of four on the seasons. Are there really four seasons, I wonder? I’m not totally sure that summer exists – doesn’t spring (March-June) just fade into autumn (July- December) and then there is a bit of winter (January and February),…
Sunday book review – Rivers Run by Kevin Parr
Kevin Parr wrote the book that I selected as my favourite of 2014, The Twitch – that one was a black comedy, though very funny, I thought, about a murderous twitcher. This book is very different, and is about Parr’s greater love – fishing. And it’s not a laddish tale of bonking, drinking and murder…
Bank Holiday Monday book review – Summer’s Guests by Theunis Piersma
I’ve lived with House Martins in the streets where I live, and sometimes next door, but never on my home, for more than half my life. Their return, ahead of the screaming Swifts, is looked for and appreciated when it happens. And they are there, chirrupping in flight, all summer long and sometimes daring to…
Sunday book review – How did we get into this mess by George Monbiot
George Monbiot writes so well – I envy him. And he knows so much – I envy him! The subtitle to this book is ‘Politics, Equality and Nature’ and it really is that wide-ranging. If you are familiar with George’s Guardian column you will currently be missing it as he is having a break and…
Books that I am reading
I hope to review George Monbiot’s new book ‘How did we get into this mess‘ on Sunday. I’m still reading it. But then I am also reading Mike Dilger’s book ‘Nightingales in November‘, Theunis Piersma’s Guests of Summer, and Kevin Parr’s Rivers Run too. Since Monday is a Bank Holiday, and therefore like a Sunday,…
Sunday book review – Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham
If you are expecting a book of rather sweet wildlife tales from your favourite TV personality then this book may not be for you. This is a brave and powerful book. It’s brave because it is a self-portrait of a rather weird kid – not good with people and not a bundle of laughs, it…