This book is illustrated by, and written by, Martin Bradley, as was the book on the Peregrine also reviewed here (in April). Colin Shawyer’s foreword includes this hope: ‘Martin has, without doubt, written and produced an outstanding book which now needs to find its way to our children’s hearts, through their parents,…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – National Birds of the World by Ron Toft
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What is your national bird? Come to that – which is your nation? David Lindo is exhorting us all to vote for a National Bird to see whether the Robin remains our top choice so maybe it is worth having a look at what other nations have chosen. Which country has chosen these species as…
Sunday book review – the Nature Magpie by Daniel Allen
This is a book to keep in the loo and dip into when you have a few moments. Or put in your bag and dip into on your commute to work or in your lunch break. It’s not a story – it’s a well-chosen miscellany of nature facts, stories and history. I liked it. It…
Sunday book review – A Sparrowhawk’s Lament by David Cobham
This review first appeared in the September Birdwatch and I am grateful to them for permission to reproduce it here (subscribe to Birdwatch here). This book is about the 15 species of raptor which breed in Britain – each gets a chapter. The author assesses whether their populations are doing well or badly (many, of…
Sunday book review – Norfolk Bird Sketches by Robert Gillmor
This attractive book of sketches will remind you, as it did me, of days spent on the north Norfolk coast, at places such as Holme, Titchwell and Cley, looking at birds. But I, and maybe you, look at birds in a different way from the way that Robert Gillmor has looked at birds for getting…
Sunday book review – the Dragonfly Diaries by Ruary Mackenzie Dodds
This is the story of the establishment of Europe’s first dragonfly centre – written by the man who set it up. But it’s more than that because it is a story of a love of dragonflies, and a story of dragonfly lovers too. I liked it a lot. The dragonfly centre in question was established…
Sunday book review – England’s 100 best views by Simon Jenkins.
I bought this book because I like views, I like Simon Jenkins’s writing, I admire and respect him as an intellect and I disagree with him quite a lot about some things (although I agree with him a lot about others). If this book had been written by another I would have been less interested…
Sunday book review – Shrewdunnit by Conor Mark Jameson
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There are two things I like a lot about this book – and four things about which I am less keen. The two are overwhelmingly more important than the four. Shall I get the four niggles out of the way first? I shall. I don’t like the title, I’m not drawn in by the cover,…
Sunday book review – A history of birdwatching in 100 objects by David Callahan
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This is a book worth reading. Before you do read it, play the game yourself. What would be your 100 objects that capture the history of birdwatching? That’s what I did, and I found it difficult to come up with a list and so I am grateful to the effort that David Callahan went to,…
Sunday book review – Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel
There is grass, and there are meadows. They aren’t the same. As you travel around the countryside, particularly in the west of Britain (although, as in other respects, the country used to be less polarised than it now is), you will see a lot of grass. It looks pretty, or, at least, quite pretty, but…