Category: Book review

I liked this book. It’s about Ash trees and what you can make out of their wood. It’s a simple enough idea but it takes the author, Robert Penn, to many parts of the UK , Europe and America and he meets a variety of interesting craftsmen on his journeys. Baseball bats, cricket stumps and…

This is the book of the radio programme. Have a look at that cover – very clever! And quite pretty, too. I’m almost totally addicted to Radio 4 and so I have heard bits of several of the radio programmes that make up the subject matter of this book. The basic idea is that each…

This is a book written by an eminent economist who is also passionately interested in wildlife. There may be lots of such people but I haven’t met many of them. And Professor Dieter Helm has been since 2012, the chair of the Natural Capital Committee in England. The author states in his preface that ‘The…

This book is pretty and interesting. It’s a bit different too. The illustrations, by the author, of fauna and flora but also of ingredients for recipes and instructions for making ornaments or games, are very a big plus for the book. Those of birds are accurate enough, and very attractive (so it’s a pity that…

Stunning images of insects. This book is stuffed full of them. Stick insects, beautiful caterpillars, lacewings, wasps, mosquitoes – all are photographed in perfect detail. And the point of the book is that they are caught as eggs and in various stages of development, as well as as adults. I knew a bit about ant…