Book reviews

Book reviews

Read reviews of the books we hold in the Chris Mead Library, written by our in-house experts. A selection of book reviews also features in our members’ magazine, BTO News.

Featured review

All the Birds of the World

Lynx have had a long-term project to produce an exhaustive guide to the birds of the world. It started out with the 17 volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (1992-2013) which has family and species accounts for all birds. This was followed by the two volumes of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (2014-16). They have now published the third and final stage of this avian odyssey with this current book.

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All the Birds of the World

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Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky

Author: Sarah Gibson

Publisher: William Collins, London

Published: 2021

Just as the May return of our breeding Swifts delivers a feeling of reassurance, so their late summer departure leaves a sense of loss. That loss, repeated each year, now carries the greater weight ...

Shearwater: A Bird, an Ocean, and a Long Way Home

Author: Roger Morgan-Grenville

Publisher: Icon Books, London

Published: 2021

Part travelogue, part memoir, Morgan-Grenville’s book delivers an engaging account of one of our least accessible breeding birds, the Manx Shearwater. The 13 chapters are structured around a narrative ...

How You Can Save the Planet

Author: Hendrikus van Hensbergen

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, London

Published: 2021

A book by Hendrikus van Hensbergen, the founder Action for Conservation (an organisation getting more young people involved in nature), needs little introduction. Highlighting the lack of ...

The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird

Author: Sam Lee

Publisher: Century, London

Published: 2021

Many will know Sam Lee as an award-winning singer, a folk music specialist dedicated to collecting and interpreting Britain’s oral tradition. Some will know him for his work as musical director for ...

The Eternal Season: Ghosts of Summers Past, Present and Future

Author: Stephen Rutt

Publisher: Elliott and Thompson Ltd, London

Published: 2021

The Eternal Season is an exploration of the British summer, framed within the 2020 global pandemic but reaching back in time through reference to the writings of others, the author’s recollections of ...

Beak, Tooth & Claw: Living with Predators in Britain

Author: Mary Colwell

Publisher: William Collins, London

Published: 2021

If you firmly believe that no fox should ever be shot or equally firmly believe that foxes should always be controlled then you may think that this is not a book for you. This is a book full of nuance ...

The Birds of Wales/Adar Cymru

Author: Rhion Pritchard(Editor), Julian Hughes(Editor), Ian M Spence(Editor), Bob Haycock(Editor) & Anne Brenchley(Editor)

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, Liverpool

Published: 2021

This impressive tome from the Welsh Ornithological Society is the third full avifauna for Wales, following 1994’s original Birds in Wales (Lovegrove, Williams & Williams) and a subsequent update ...

Bird: Exploring the Winged World

Author: Phaidon Editors(Editor), Katrina van Grouw(Introduction By) & Jen Lobo(Contributor)

Publisher: Phaidon Press, London

Published: 2021

This is the perfect coffee table book for when it’s so cold and wet that you’ve decided to postpone your birdwatching session: this rich visual survey of artworks will cure your ‘fomo’ on birds and ...

Seabirds: The New Identification Guide

Author: Peter Harrison, Martin Perrow & Hans Larsson

Publisher: Lynx Edicions, Barcelona

Published: 2021

For many, seabirds are a bit of a mystery in that they occupy a world that for most is largely inaccessible. However, during the last couple of decades pelagic tours, both daily and for longer periods ...
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