Birds Britannica
All that stuff about judging books by their cover came immediately to mind when I first saw Birds Britannica – a full-bleed photo of a singing Nightingale is a bold choice of cover image for something obviously aimed at a wide-ish market. Do the publishers really hope to pull in the masses with this? Though very probably our finest avian songster, without an accompanying CD it’s just another ‘LBJ’, isn’t it? But it works, I think – the photo really is stunning and in many ways it’s the perfect choice of species for this book, which is as much about British people as it is about British birds.
This hefty coffee-table tome looks set to do well in the Christmas market, appealing to birders but perhaps even more to those who buy presents for birders. If you know the hugely successful companion volume, Flora Britannica, you will find the approach and structure of this new book familiar. The main text works through the species in traditional taxonomic order, and all breeding and most visiting species get an account. The length of the account reflects the species’ standing within British culture above all else – for example Wren gets four pages and four illustrations, while the similarly common and widespread Meadow Pipit has just half a page and a single image. But then this is not and does not set out to be a scientific record.
Accounts for the less culturally ingrained species are very concise, but when you reach those with some level of iconic status, this is where the book really hits its stride. Here, tradition, legend, birding and conservation themes are all explored with great enthusiasm.
For example, you can read the full sorry story of the Great Bustard’s British extinction, learn about the traditional ‘cuckoo festivals’ held in spring up and down the country in centuries past, and enjoy some of the more bizarre avian local names (anyone care to hazard a guess as to the more familiar nomenclature for Deafie, Fulfer or Stinkle?). Incidentally, it’s rather nice to see birders’ nicknames for certain species recorded here also, though I found it a bit peculiar to see Little Ringed Plover referred to as LRP throughout its account.
The writing is easy-going in this text-dense book, and interspersed with many historical quotes, extracts of poetry and so on, all of which do much to enliven the accounts and set them in a more tangible context.
The photographs and other illustrations are a fantastic collection, chosen for interest rather than identification. And some of them are extremely interesting. The Water Rail leaping in the air to take a worm from a fishing line, the Mallard and ducklings being escorted by a police officer from the grounds of Buckingham Palace and a young Elizabeth Taylor festooned with feral pigeons in Trafalgar Square are some of the more memorable archive images. The colour photos are in many cases quite dazzling, though you may have seen a few before (the Sparrowhawk attack on a garden feeding station and the moodily lit Golden Eagle portrait, for example). Several artworks are used too, including an Eric Ennion, an Ian Wallace and quite a few very attractive pub signs.
This book is beautifully presented and put together, nicely written, packed with fascinating trivia and lovely photos, and you get a lot of it for your money.
Tech spec
- Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey (Chatto and Windus, London, 2005).
- 518 pages, more than 400 colour photographs and paintings.
- ISBN 978 0701169077. Hbk, £35.
