Standing up for Nature
The pigeon was known as Martha, and the species was the Passenger Pigeon. Amongst all extinctions, this example remains unusual in two respects: the precision with which the timing is known and the overwhelming abundance of the species just a few decades earlier – for, just a few decades before Martha died, the Passenger Pigeon…
This book brings together a selection of extinct species, many that have been pushed to global extinction in living memory or at least recently enough to have touched human culture, and tells their stories. In some cases they are given a voice to tell their own stories. It’s a compilation of 30 species (or…
Cathy lives in Hove, where she is in her final year of a Masters in Nature & Travel Writing. She enjoys writing about the natural world, and was longlisted in the Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year 2023 competition. She volunteers at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex as a volunteer ranger and white…
The pigeon was known as Martha, and the species was the Passenger Pigeon. Amongst all extinctions, this example remains unusual in two respects: the precision with which the timing is known and the overwhelming abundance of the species just a few decades earlier – for, just a few decades before Martha died, the Passenger Pigeon…
This is not a picture book, although there are plenty of Audubon’s sketches and reproductions of his finished artwork in these pages. This is a book of Audubon’s words, some of which were intended for publication and others which were more private jottings, or accounts meant for the later reading by his family. In our…
Who I am – Scottish with a fascination for wildlife from childhood – in lieu of formal qualifications (and not being able to flash them about!) – was on the 1990 International Youth Conservation Exchange to Hungary, was the 1993 winner of the BBC Wildlife Magazine ‘Realms of the Russian Bear’ competition and spent nearly…
I occasionally tell you about the huge wealth that comes from writing books – well, my books anyway. I’ve just had a royalty payment from Bloomsbury for Birds and Forestry (1989, with Roderick Leslie), A Message from Martha (2014) and Inglorious (2015, 2nd edition 2016). In 2022 these three books, but basically Inglorious, earned me…
This is a book of photographs of extinct species, so it’s a bit like looking through a very old family album whose subjects you’ve never met but with whom you feel somehow linked through time. All the species are either mammals or birds. Some of the photographs are of poor quality, and many are unsurprisingly…
On 1 September 1914, between midday and 1 pm, in the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Cincinnati, Ohio, a pigeon breathed her last, and with her died her species. The pigeon was known as Martha, and the species was the Passenger Pigeon. Amongst all extinctions, this example remains unusual in two respects: the precision with which…
Good morning Mark, Just writing to thank you for the excellent ‘A message from Martha‘ which I have just finished reading this morning (I know it’s been around a while – I’ve been busy!). I’ve never been particularly excited by pigeons – especially dead ones- but I was stirred to read your book partly by…