Product Description

A journey of 6,000 miles across two continents and fourteen countries is nothing to swallows: they do it twice a year. But for a writer and birdwatcher, this is the expedition of a lifetime. By trains, cars, buses, motorbikes, trucks, canoes, planes, one camel and three ships, Horatio Clare followed migrating swallows (Hirundo rustica) from reed beds outside Bloemfontein, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May. From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, "A Single Swallow" is a journey through the modern world to the tune of an ancient rhythm.It is a story of old empires and modern tribes, of the horrors of power and the wonders of kindness. It includes a witch-doctor's recipe for stewed swallow, explains how to travel without money or a passport, describes a terrifying incident involving three Spanish soldiers and a tiny orange dog, betrays several swallow secrets and proves that Wales exists only because of Ryan Giggs. It also tests the wisdom of an ancient piece of hearsay: the Zulus say that those who follow the swallows never come back ...Magical, inspiring, beautifully written with passion and purpose, "A Single Swallow" is a thrilling book about the intersection of the natural and the human worlds, sending shivers down the spine and lifting the heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17489 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Review
'Fine lyrical writing and a gift for inventive, unexpected metaphor. A brave, modern, multicultural and open-hearted approach to travel itself' --Guardian

Review
`Clare has produced an enthusiastic, often elegiac, chronicle of his encounters with the swallows'

Review
`A gifted and lyrical travel writer, good at making contact with all sorts of people. A sensitive and intelligent observer'

Customer Reviews

wondrous
This book is a wonderful account of the journey of a swallow throughout its migration. I am completely in awe of how this little bird can fly so far. All the countries it flies over and to are discussed in a brilliant narrative. Buy it! Then next time you see a swallow arrive in the spring imagine its journey and be amazed.

A superb and honest account of one man's journey through Africa, Spain and France
A modern day Laurie Lee - but with more grit and honesty. A Single Swallow is many things - part natural history, part journalism, part autobiography. There is spiritual observation and thought, there is romance and there is of course history and geography. The portrait of West Africa is dark, shocking, humorous and beautiful. Clare's ability to be both personal and objective in how he writes and observes, aided by his phemomenal and rhythmic prose, are winning ingredients in this quite brilliant book.

Stunning
A beautiful book which tells a story of travelling and love. The writer sets the scene beautifully, even the most closed of minds can picture the journey he takes and the true love he finds along the way. I cannot recommend this book higly enough although i was quite unprepared for the dog dying at the end.