Home › Books › Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood
Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood
by
66/99
Critics' Rating Index
70/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
66/99
Volume of Reviews
44/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
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
"Often a bit over-the-top, especially at first, as Nicolson's literary quirks seep into the prose, bogging down the narrative with literary allusions and purple prose ..."
"Nicolson is especially good at illuminating what goes unseen (or unheard), like the fact that birds perceive time more slowly than humans."
"An evocative ode to English birds that invites readers to look more closely at the world around them ..."
"Nicolson's dispassionate style is effective at illustrating the threat to Britain's birds."
"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 ..."
"Bird School is elegant and involving."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!