Product Description

Another magnificent achievement and a unique work of huge importance - a handsome, easy-to-read, comprehensive cultural study, species by species, of all the birds in Britain. Companion volume to Flora Britannica. Birds Britannica is neither an identification guide nor a behavioural study (though both these subjects enter its field). It covers cultural links; social history; birds as food; ecology; the lore and language of birds; myths, art, literature and music; anecdotes, birdsong and rare facts; modern developments; migration, the seasons and our sense of place. An attempt to describe the interaction of birds and humans, it captures the essence of why birds matter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17302 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Released on: 2005-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 484 pages

From the Publisher
Published to universal acclaim: "A national monument ...The wider wonders of bird life rise from the pages of Birds Britannica like a distant flock of winter waders' Sunday Times. 'There are not many reference books I could happily read from cover to cover - but this is a welcome exception. The publishers claim that Birds Britannica is "a bird book like no other", and, for once, the hype is justified. Be warned: you may become so immersed in its pages that, before you realise it, the dawn chorus has begun' Evening Standard. 'Brims over with joy' Telegraph. 'British bird life has found its perfect encyclopedist ... The book is a triumph' Guardian

About the Author
RICHARD MABEY is Britain's foremost nature writer, as famous for the beauty of his prose as for his exceptional knowledge and insights. His previous books include Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside, The Book of Nightingales and Nature Cure. His biography of Gilbert White won the Whitbread Biography Award. MARK COCKER, of whom Birding World wrote 'Cocker is undoubtedly the best contemporary writer on birding issues', is the author of the bestselling Birders and a biography of Britain's most colourful ornithologist, Richard Meinertzhagen. He has been birding for more than 30 years, and writes on birds and environmental issues for The Times and the Independent. He has been awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship to study the birds of West Africa.

Customer Reviews

Superb
This book is excellent, both text and photography, I began by dipping into it, but soon had to start at the beginning, not to miss anything. Full of fascinating facts, anecdotes, beautifully written and produced.

Birds Britannica
This book deserves all its accolades and more.A rich plum pudding of a book, full of fruitful vignettes.Like all great works,we can only wonder why it has taken so long for British publishing to get around to filling such an obvious gap in our bird literature.Any one with even just the slightest interest in the birds on their garden bird table would savour this book.All of us birdwatchers and birders will have to own this book and enjoy reading every syllable of it.A supreme masterpiece on a par with the best bird books ever written.Indeed,who's to say this is not the best bird book ever written?

quite simply superb
This superb, lavishly illustrated book deserves pride of place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in birds, British natural history or the relations between humans and other animals.

The text draws as much from literature, anecdote and social/cultural history as it does from ornithology but that only widens and deepens its impact. At times the book is quite numbingly sad (without being mawkish or sentimental), leaving the reader with a sense of outrage at our historical, and to some extent ongoing, treatment of wild birds. Although, it has to be said, the story isn't all one of cruelty and exploitation. In short this book perfectly captures our species' contradictory attitudes to wild animals very accurately indeed.

Highly recommended.