Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14827 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
The perfect wildlife companion - everything you need to know about the countryside and the award-winning BBC TV show BBC TV's Springwatch is one of the most watched programmes on BBC2. Springwatch by Bill Oddie, Kate Humble and Simon King brings together the three presenters who take you behind the scenes of Springwatch: introducing you to the real stars of their TV show - the wildlife you can find in Britain. Bill, Kate and Simon take you on your own personal tour of the British countryside and introduce the places and animals that have made the series such a fascinating introduction to the countryside. Bill and Kate concentrate on the Devon Farm, from where the main series is transmitted, while Simon takes you to the wildlife spots around Britain that he has visited in all the Springwatch and Autumnwatch programmes. You will be introduced to all the plants, animals and birds that you have seen over the last three years, plus a few you will see in the future: otters, kingfishers, orchids, trees, sea birds, barn owls - every wildife star is featured.

As well as giving their personal memories of each star, Bill, Kate and Simon have also enlisted the help of the wildlife people who have helped them with the programmes to give you fascinating minibiographies of these species, allowing you to understand why they do what they do. We also go behind the scenes to see how the programme is put together - with details on the special tricks that they use to bring live wildlife to the TV - as well as Simon's special tips on how to get close to the some of Britain's more elusive animals. The combination of Bill, Kate and Simon and the wildlife of Britain has been an enormous success on TV. This book adds to this unique recipe with even more background info and behind the scenes stories to bring you the wildlife book of the year.

Customer Reviews

More of a 'recap' than anything new
First and foremost there are a few facts you should know when considering buying this book. Firstly it does not cover Springwatch 2007 (or after), concentrating on 2005/6 with references to previous years.

Second, the book is dominated by Bill Oddie with significant contributions from Simon King and the producer Stephen Moss, but there is surprisingly little input from Kate Humble who writes less than 20 pages out of 255!

Thirdly Autumnwatch is covered very briefly taking up approximately 20 pages. This is understandable as Springwatch is the bigger and longer running show but i feel Autumnwatch could have been covered in more detail.

The book centres around an extensive diary written by Oddie over the coarse of Springwatch 2006. This is enlightening in parts but has the feel of being sneakily written some time after the event. The diary is interjected every couple of days by a chapter on that episode's highlight written by King, Moss or Humble. These chapters tell the story of the individual animal and give some background information on the species, but can get a little tiring as they often repeat what Oddie has written in his diary.

The main positive from this book was that the presenters clearly wrote the articles themselves and did their own editing. Although this leads to literary mistakes you do get the sense of their individual personalities. This is a welcome change from many books by Oddie and King which are obviously edited by a third person.

As it was written in early 2007 I had hoped it might include a 'latest news' on some of the individuals from previous years, but disappointingly it only gives us information up to the end of the series that the individuals figured in.

In short this book is a chance to reminisce on our favourite bits of the series and with no DVD released is probably the best way to do so. Just don't expect anything new, and although the photographs are mostly good they're nothing that can't be found somewhere else.

An excellent companion to the series
This book is ideal for followers of the show as it covers the history of the programme up to the start of the current Springwatch, together with chapters on related topics by the individual contributors.
A fair chunk of it is typical Bill Oddy, but in a good way as befits a book for all ages and levels of enthusiasm and balanced out by sizeable contributions by the other contributors particularly Simon King.
I normally hate 'books of the programme' but this is really worth looking at if you are one of the thousands of fans.