Birdland
A Journey Around Britain on the Wing
Format:Hardback
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers
Publishing:24th Apr '25
£22.00
This title is due to be published on 24th April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A joyous celebration of Britain’s rich bird life.
In Birdland, journalist and lifelong twitcher Jon Gower explores our intimate connection with the bird life around us. From the symphonic song of the wren to the clack of a puffin’s beak and from epic migrations to sunset murmurations, birds are commonplace miracles. No wonder they have inspired our artists, writers and songwriters. Whether rare or abundant, Jon Gower visits some of the best places in Britain to watch birds, searching for some species he has always wanted to see such as wryneck, dotterel and barred warbler.
But all is not well in Birdland. Gower charts the many changes to Britain’s bird life over the last 50 years, as the countryside has seemingly emptied and in many ways fallen silent. He considers the effects of the climate emergency, the decline in biodiversity and warming oceans on birdlife and looks at work being done to mitigate these developments. But above all it is a celebration of birds and their being, and a call to arms to defend them. As Great Bustards return to our plains and eagles to our mountains, Jon Gower’s book examines the future from a bird’s-eye view.
Praise for Jon Gower's The Turning Tide…
‘Fascinating, spellbinding, erudite and great fun.’ Roddy Doyle
‘Remarkable. Lively … Gower writes beautifully [and] the book is profoundly popular.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘The book equivalent of being hosted by a travelling storyteller around a fire.’ Gwenno
‘As full of life and vitality as the sea itself.’ Nicholas Crane
‘A dazzle of storytelling, an enthralling trove of history and a joyful work of travel and reportage, singing with the love of the sea.' Horatio Clare
‘A beautifully absorbing read encompassing aeons of human and natural histories. What a remarkable, generous, compendious achievement.' Neil Hegarty
‘Contagious with delight and fascination. The seeming informality, the twinkle-in-the-eye in the telling, the gentle provocation make it a joy to read.’ Cynan Jones
‘In prose as glittering as the ocean itself, Gower unearths the saints and smugglers, the birds and bards that have inhabited this salty kingdom. Roars with a unique passion and character.’ Mike Parker
‘Bursting with detailed natural history and stories of conquest, love, tragedy, and poetry alike, and so teeming with life, you can’t stop reading.’ Bathsheba Demuth
ISBN: 9780008688189
Dimensions: 240mm x 159mm x 23mm
Weight: 270g
320 pages