I liked Conor’s previous book, but I like this one even more. Whereas in Silent Spring Revisited Conor lived through the events described but seemed, to me, to be a little detached from them, this is a book where he describes what he did, and where he went, to get to grips better with a…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Book Review – Bird Conservation by Williams et al
Bird Conservation – global evidence for the effects of interventions by David R Williams, Robert G Pople, David A Showler, Lynn V Dicks, Matthew F Child, Erasmus KHJ zu Ermgassen and William J Sutherland. Published by Pelagic Publishing. Paperback £34.99, Hardback £64.99, e-Book £19.99. 575 pages. This is a very useful reference book for conservation…
Book review – Britain’s Sea Mammals by Jon Dunn, Robert Still and Hugh Harrop
The first cetacean I ever saw was probably a harbour porpoise off the coast of Argyll – although I thought it was a dolphin. And the first whale I saw, which surfaced in a raft of Manx shearwaters off the north coast of Rhum, was probably a minke whale – although I thought it was…
Book review – Nature all around us by Beatrix Beisner, Christian Messier and Luc-Alain Giraldeau
This is a lovely little book: small in size but great in scope. It is subtitled a ‘guide to urban ecology’ but since ecology is the same everywhere it is a guide to ecology which has been approached through the everyday sights and sounds that surround those people who might think that they are most…
Book review – Birds in a Cage by Derek Niemann
I liked this book. Birds in a Cage is the story of four British prisoners of war, Second Lieutenant Peter Conder, Second Lieutenant John Buxton, Second Lieutenant George Waterston and Squadron Leader John Barrett, who, after WWII, went on to influence nature conservation practice and policy. It’s a remarkable tale which is beautifully told. On…
Book review – Wild Hope by Andrew Balmford
I count the author of this book as a friend and therefore you might want to discount all the good things I am going to write about his excellent book – please don’t do that. Professor Andrew Balmford FRS is one of just a handful of UK academics who understands nature conservation through doing it,…
Book review – Silent Spring revisited by Conor Mark Jameson
You may have noticed that I have been blogging on the RSPB website since 1 June – in the run up to the Rio+20 conference of world ‘leaders’ which starts next week. My blog for the RSPB today is about the widespread use of ‘-cides’ – chemical poisons. Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, was published…
Book Review – I love my World by Chris Holland
This book describes itself as ‘the playful, hands-on, nature connection guidebook’ – and so it is. If you spend any time with children out of doors then this book will give you lots of ideas for games, activities and things to talk about with young people. And those young people could be of any age…
Book review and readers’ offer: Bird sense – what it’s like to be a bird, by Tim Birkhead
Seeing, hearing, touch, taste, smell, magnetic sense and emotions are the chapters under which Prof Tim Birkhead FRS discusses what it’s like to be a bird. It’s a good read and I learned a lot about how we people sense the world around us as well as how birds sense it differently. How do birds…
Book review and readers’ offer: Wildlife photographer – a course in creative photography by Chris Gomersall
I think I was put off photography at an early age by my father. He was a keen photographer, and I remember spending what must have been minutes but seemed like hours, hanging around or reading a book in the car whilst we all waited for the sun to come out or go in, or…