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Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood

Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood

by Adam Nicolson

Farrar, Straus and Giroux ·2025 ·448 pages
New Release
Near the Top
Near the Top
I Index
68/99
Near the Top

66/99

Critics' Rating Index

Near the Top

70/99

Readers' Rating Index

n/a

Scholars' Citation Index

66/99

Volume of Reviews

44/99

Volume of Reader Ratings

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About This Book

From the bestselling and award-winning nature writer Adam Nicolson, a glorious new adventure into the British wilderness.By Adam Nicolson's home, there is a forgotten field overrun by bracken and thicketed by brambles. It is passed through by deer, wild boar and many birds – nightingales who sing in the evening, a cuckoo, turtle doves, pheasants, robins, owls. A couple of years ago, he deicide to embark on an attempt to redress his ignorance, to encounter birds, to engage with this marvellous layer of life he had so far looked past. He wanted to look and listen, to return to 'bird school' and see what it might teach him.This gorgeous book is the result, tracing Adam's adventure setting up a small shed on the edge of the field and getting to know the where they nest, how they sing, how they mate and fight, what preys on them, what they are like as living things. It beautifully written and woven through with philosophy, literature, science and emotion. Bird School pulls back the curtain on seemingly ordinary birds, and exposes our relationship as people with the wild.


Reviews

"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 ..."

Esther Woolfson· Times Literary Supplement Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"But eventually Nicolson's naturalist heart modulates the narrative, revealing singular facts and compelling anecdotes about the 'extraordinary capacity' of birds that will fire the imagination of any and all avid birders ..."

Richard Horan· The Christian Science Monitor Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"This is a beautiful love letter to the avian world."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Like one of the nests Nicolson finds on his property, it's been deftly assembled ..."

Stephen Smith· The Guardian Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Deeply satisfying ..."

Joe Shute· The Telegraph (UK) Read review ↗ Near the Top

"An evocative ode to English birds that invites readers to look more closely at the world around them ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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