The Seabird’s Cry
Adam Nicolson – Williams Collins
A beautiful book on birds written in beautiful prose which makes you look anew at these fantastic creatures. It describes 10 of the charasmatic seabirds their lifecycle and gives you a real feel for them – all written in lovely prose with poetry added to enhance the experience
The Unhabitable Earth
David Wallace-Wells – Crown Publishing Group
A genuinely depressing read this book lays out in all it’s glory detail the extent of the trouble our planet and by extension the human race is in when it comes to climate change. I can’t promise you’ll enjoy reading this book but it is a fascinating read and incredibly broad in its coverage of the implications of the climate catostrophe.
Wilding
Isabella Tree – Picador Press Highly recommended by 2019 Wainwright book Prize
Very interesting book on the wilding of an estate farm in southern England, the section on trying to maintain good farming practices and loosing money should be compulsary reading for Irish TD’s and farming representative. The resistance encountered to their plans seem to be redolent of what we are constantly hearing here. Well worth a read !
Rebirding
Benedict Macdonald – Pelagic
Building on some of the themes in Wilding this book contains a call to arms to UK birders and, after painting a bleak picture of how they got there, presents an amazing vision for the future of UK birds with everything from warblers to pelicans finding a home in the UK through habitat restoration. While the end point seems incredible the book lays out how simple changes in UK public policy could create an amazing and inspiring future for British birds.
Whittled Away
Pádraic Fogarty – Collins Press
Obviously can’t mention rewilding and the shocking state of nature on the British Isles without coming to our very own denuded landscape. Laid out in great detail this excellent read by the campaign office for the Irish Wildlife Trust this book explains how we got where we are (spoiler alert our biodiversity isn’t doing great) but more importantly how we can fix it.
Tide
Hugh Aldersey-Williams Penguin press
More about tides than you really want to know – but an enjoyable piece of prose with interesting anecodotes – lots of history on tides and also current science – well worth a read.
Cuckoo : Cheating by Nature
Nick Davies – Bloomsbury
This is a book about cuckoos. That’s really all there is to it, cuckoos, information about cuckoos at a depth and scope that you didn’t think you needed. And you probably don’t but I have to say this is an incredibly enjoyable book and will give you a great appreciation of the struggle that goes into that wonderful cry you hear on a summer morning.
