Overview

A joyous celebration of Britain’s rich bird life In Birdland, journalist and lifelong birder Jon Gower explores our intimate connection with the bird life around us. From the symphonic song of the wren to the clack of a puffin’s beak and from epic migrations to sunset murmurations, birds are commonplace miracles. No wonder they have inspired our artists, writers and songwriters. Whether rare or abundant, Jon Gower visits some of the best places in Britain to watch birds, searching for some species he has always wanted to see such as wryneck, dotterel and barred warbler. But all is not well in Birdland. Gower charts the many changes to Britain’s bird life over the last 50 years, as the countryside has seemingly emptied and in many ways fallen silent. He considers the effects of the climate emergency, the decline in biodiversity and warming oceans on birdlife and looks at work being done to mitigate these developments. But above all it is a celebration of birds and their being, and a call to arms to defend them. As Great Bustards return to our plains and eagles to our mountains, Jon Gower’s book examines the future from a bird’s-eye view.

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9780008688189

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Reviews

Praise for Jon Gower's The Turning Tide… ‘Fascinating, spellbinding, erudite and great fun.’ Roddy Doyle ‘Remarkable. Lively … Gower writes beautifully [and] the book is profoundly popular.’ Times Literary Supplement ‘The book equivalent of being hosted by a travelling storyteller around a fire.’ Gwenno ‘As full of life and vitality as the sea itself.’ Nicholas Crane ‘A dazzle of storytelling, an enthralling trove of history and a joyful work of travel and reportage, singing with the love of the sea.' Horatio Clare ‘A beautifully absorbing read encompassing aeons of human and natural histories. What a remarkable, generous, compendious achievement.' Neil Hegarty ‘Contagious with delight and fascination. The seeming informality, the twinkle-in-the-eye in the telling, the gentle provocation make it a joy to read.’ Cynan Jones ‘In prose as glittering as the ocean itself, Gower unearths the saints and smugglers, the birds and bards that have inhabited this salty kingdom. Roars with a unique passion and character.’ Mike Parker ‘Bursting with detailed natural history and stories of conquest, love, tragedy, and poetry alike, and so teeming with life, you can’t stop reading.’ Bathsheba Demuth

'A delightful peregrination around our nation in search not just of birds, but also what birds mean to us; jam-packed with fascinating cultural, scientific and human stories.' Stephen Moss 'An intelligent, enchanting and uplifting book.' Tristan Gooley 'Follow the song and be plunged into a world where you will be charmed by birds. Full of knowledge and emotion, this is a wonderful journey to take alongside such an erudite and passionate writer.' Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB ‘A wonderfully descriptive avian journey around Britain with the erudite scribe, Jon Gower, at the wheel. At once witty, poignant and delightful, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.’ Iolo Williams 'A lovely book, born out of a deep affection for birds and a lifetime's fascination for them. Gower is the perfect guide, knowledgeable, inquisitive, passionate. It is a book as much about birds as it is about the pull birds exert over us.' James Macdonald Lockhart 'A powerful and vital antidote to that awful feeling of ""the deadening of life on the planet"". A truly beautiful book about birds and people, it is also a quiet masterpiece, by turns moving, funny and revelatory, about living in love with the world.' Horatio Clare 'This is Jon Gower in his absolute element – pursuing birds through landscape and language to every corner of Britain. Birdland tells stories of heartbreaking loss, but also of joy and determination, and the people fighting to save and celebrate our endangered species. It is charming, sobering, exquisitely observed and, above all, inspirational.' Tom Bullough 'This is magnificent. Jon Gower's patent love of humanity is the rare background to the art, culture, history and deep bird knowledge that make up his exhilarating story. It is a book that I never wanted to end.' Roger Morgan-Grenville 'A wonderful blend of anecdote and knowledge, brimming with curiosity and erudition and full of fascinating stories.' Lev Parikian

Author Information

Jon Gower grew up in Llanelli, Wales and studied English at Cambridge University. A former BBC Wales Arts and Media correspondent, he has been making documentary programmes for television and radio for several decades. He has over thirty books to his name, in both Welsh and English. The Story of Wales, was published to accompany a landmark BBC series broadcast. He lives in Cardiff, Wales.

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