I have a copy of my forthcoming new book, A Message from Martha, in my hands. Unlike its author it looks both classy and beautiful. There is something about a book isn’t there? Review copies have been sent out so I will soon know how the book is received. You can hold a copy of…
Category: AUTHOR: Reflections, Inglorious, Message from Martha, Remarkable Birds etc
A month today…
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…A Message from Martha is published. Here is a sneak preview… Here is the list of chapters… Chris Packham says: ‘This hugely thought provoking and important book is the kick up the arse that every complacent conservationist needs right now‘ and ‘This heart-wrenching saga of extinctions, old and new, is as much about us…
Martha
The current month’s Birdwatch has extracts from my forthcoming book A Message from Martha: the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and its relevance today. I’ve been touched by how many people have emailed me, after reading Birdwatch, to say that they are definitely going to buy it. The book looks at the story of the…
A Message from Martha
In two months’ time, A Message from Martha: the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and its relevance today will be published in the UK. Chris Packham is one of only about half a dozen people who has read it so far and he says: ‘This hugely thought provoking and important book is the kick up…
This day in 1900
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In his book, Hope is the Thing with Feathers, Chris Cokinos describes the death of what may have been the last wild Passenger Pigeon at the hands of the young Press Clay Southworth in rural Ohio. That was on 24 March 1900 – after that, the only Passenger Pigeons known to man (and woman) were…
Proof of the book
I am going through the proofs of A Message from Martha. I’m not very good at checking proofs – not of things I wrote – because I let the words on the page take me back to the ideas and the places and the species about which I was writing. Surely all writers are like…
The Passenger Pigeon centenary – talk available
The last Passenger Pigeon on Earth died on 1 September 1914 in Cincinnati Zoo. 100 years earlier this was the commonest bird on Earth – with a population of billions. Why did this abundant species die out? Should we care? What are the lessons for today? Book Mark Avery to speak to your Bird…
Pigeons and doves
I went out for a walk on Monday morning and as I parked the car at 0710 a large flock of pigeons flew past. Just Woodpigeons, nothing very special, but hundreds of them so quite interesting. And then another flew past, and another and I started counting. In 15 minutes c5000 birds flew past; and…
Having a day off
Pheww! I think I’ll go out for a walk.
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
My thanks to Ralph for this cartoon – his idea, not mine. Monday is the day when I send in the manuscript of ‘A message from Martha‘ to Bloombury and everything is on track. I hope they like it. I’ve been liaising with the artist who is producing the cover – looking good to me…