Sunday book review – The Volunteers by Carol Donaldson

This is the story of the relationships between the author and a team of conservation volunteers. It is a tender account of those relationships and has some very, very well-written and moving passages. I liked it a lot. However, although these are conservation volunteers, nature is the backdrop to this book rather than a leading…

Sunday book review – Enjoying Birdwatching in Lancashire and Cumbria by David Hindle

I wrote the foreword for this book (the author must have caught me on a good day) but it was published last year so I have been rather dilatory in giving it the little breath of publicity here that it most certainly deserves. The title is self-explanatory but few vaguely similar regional books use the…

Mid-week book review – The Last Crow by Bob Berzins

Another novel about the murky upland world of somewhere near you? Badgers, grouse moors, lords, rich businessmen, snares, machetes, rifles, Hen Harriers, modern slavery and so much more. It’s a good follow-up to Bob’s previous novel Snared (see review here). If you enjoyed Snared then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this too. And, just like Snared,…

Sunday book review – The Flitting by Ben Masters

What a book! I have devoured this book since it arrived a few days ago;  using early morning writing time to read it, muting the television commentary of the Olympics so that I could read in peace (and thus missing some events I wanted to watch) and snatching moments here and there. It’s a great…