This book was written in response to the recorded arrival of Ash dieback disease in the UK in 2012. Apparently it is the first book ever written about what is the one of the UK’s commonest trees. Oliver Rackham is one of the UK’s experts on the countryside, its history and its woodland and so…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
This is not a Field Guide – it’s a novel. It’s a somewhat novel novel being a story of love amongst birders. On the weekly bird walks of the East African Ornithological Society romance is stirring. Will Mr Malik get the girl – or will he be given the bird? This is a light-hearted romantic…
Sunday book review – Dusk Until Dawn by Martin Bradley
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,…
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,…