This book is lovely. There are lots of photographs, very good photographs, the author is a professional cameraman and photographer, and some pretty good words. It’s the story of a year spent looking at Brown Hares in North Norfolk, in the part of the world that birders and people with boats, both drive through quickly,…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – The Book of 365 by Hugh Brazier and Jan McCann
This book is not all about nature but there is quite a lot of nature dispersed through its pages, which is to be expected since one of its authors is a former Guest Blogger here. And so, it comes as no great surprise, but a delight nonetheless, to find mentions of Passenger Pigeons, California Condors…
Sunday book review – John Muir by Mary Colwell
This year is the centenary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and also of the death of John Muir – ‘the Scotsman who saved America’s wild places’. John Muir was born in Dunbar in 1838 and died in California in 1914 – in between he fell in love with the USA’s wildlife and wild…
Sunday book review – 100 Things that Caught My Eye by Chris Packham
I’ve spent some time with Chris Packham this year. We both talked at the Hampshire Ornithological Society AGM on my birthday in March, and chatted about Hen Harriers on that day and wound each other up on the subject. We stood together as part of the ‘Sodden 570’ on Hen Harrier Day in the Peak…
Sunday book review – The Ash Tree by Oliver Rackham
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…
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…