Book: Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear?

Description

 

‘I love this book. It’s beautifully written, funny and approachable. Lev Parikian has a fine line in description, a musician’s ear for birdsong and a talent for looking at things properly that we can all learn from.‘ Sam West

‘The loveliest book about birdwatching you will ever read.’ Emma Kennedy

‘The best book I have read this year.’ Natalie Fergie, author of The Sewing Machine

‘…good-hearted and well made, funny and clever’. Richard Smyth, Times Literary Supplement

‘A new favourite … one I will recommend to birders and non-birders alike’. Paul French, British Birds magazine

‘This is a warm, joyful and hilarious book; an uplifting read for those who have ever suffered at the hands of modern life, or for those who simply love the velvet symphony of a blackbird at dusk.’ Tiffany Francis, author of Dark Skies

‘It made me cry, twice, it made me laugh out loud, and it made me pretty envious.’ Alice Stringer, Down The Rabbit Hole

‘…takes pride of place along with the very best nature books in my library.’ John Fish, The Last Word Book Review

‘Pithy prose that’s sprinkled with wry humour, the overall effect calling to mind Douglas Adams.’ Chris Foster, Considering Birds

‘Anyone interested in birds, or people, birds and people, would do well to grab themselves a copy of this most charming of books.’ Matt Gilbert, Richly Evocative

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At twelve years old, I was an avid birdwatcher. I was also a fraud, a liar and a cheat. Those lists of birds seen and ticked off? Lies. One hundred and thirty species? More like sixty.

Then, when I turned fifty, I decided to right my childhood wrongs. I picked up the binoculars and set out to see two hundred species of British bird in a year. No cheating.

Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? is the story of that year, a story about birds, family, music, nostalgia, the nature of obsession and obsession with nature. It’s about losing and regaining contact with the sights, sounds and smells of the natural world.

It’s a book for anyone who has ever seen a small brown bird and wondered what it was, or tried to make sense of a world in which we can ask, ‘What’s that bird?’ and ‘What’s for lunch?’ and get the same answer.