Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood
In thirteen chapters packed with information, we are led through the layers of history, palaeontology, poetry, music and science, all showing the ways that birds have become an indivisible part of human life and culture ... Fascinating ... Encourages us to appreciate the Umwelt of birds ... Stands as a strong message to value what we have while we still have it.
Read Full Review >>
In part a deep topography of a local patch, and in part an exploration of the intricacies of the lives of the birds that reside there ... Deeply satisfying ... Instead of attempting to capture the unknowable, he draws upon an impressive depth of scientific and historical research to bring his subjects to life ... He only loses focus when, on occasion, he ventures too far afield ... When he stays put, Bird School is a worthy addition to a literary lineage that stretches back to the 18th-century writer and naturalist Gilbert White ... Nicolson’s dispassionate style is effective at illustrating the threat to Britain’s birds.
Read Full Review >>
Bird School is elegant and involving. Like one of the nests Nicolson finds on his property, it’s been deftly assembled ... The findings in his pages are also a little like birds’ eggs: they wink up at you fascinatingly before you realise that some of what you’re looking at is smashed
Read Full Review >>
