Overview

The definitive analysis of one of UK's most beloved nature spots, written by an expert with 50 years' experience in the field and a long-standing connection with the island. Hundreds of stunning colour photographs throughout. Forewords by Iolo Williams and Professor Chris Perrins, FRS. -- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru

Full Product Details

9781784618117

Table of Contents

Reviews

Skomer is a captivating Welsh island and one of Britains most spectacular National Nature Reserves. It has internationally important populations of seabirds, including puffins and Manx shearwaters, and large numbers of grey seal pups are born on the island's beaches. The breathtaking displays of spring flowers, including coast-to-coast bluebells, give the island an almost unrivalled beauty, and it is also one of the best-preserved prehistoric landscapes in Britain. The author's years of meticulous research have resulted in the most complete account of the island's history and natural history ever produced, beautifully illustrated throughout with his own exquisite photographs of species and habitats. Through close co-operation with descendants of the island's former farming families, Mike Alexander has compiled a collection of important and previously unpublished photographs, which inform and enhance the historical sections. The book is written with a level of detail that would make it relevant to professional conservationists, but is presented in a style that is also accessible to amateur naturalists and anyone with an interest in the countryside given the enormous and enduring popularity of TV programmes such as the BBCs Countryfile and Springwatch, the potential audience for the book is huge. In addition, tens of thousands of people visit Skomer and the surrounding cliffs of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park every year, and many of them will be inspired to learn more about its history and natural history. Skomer is extremely popular, receiving regular media attention from magazines, radio and television wildlife programmes. At the heart of this book is the relationship between people and place: how Skomer has been moulded over the centuries to meet the needs of a succession of inhabitants. This is a universal theme that transcends the boundaries of this tiny fragment of land, and would be relevant to anyone who is curious about the environment we have created. -- Y Lolfa

Skomer is a captivating Welsh island and one of Britain's most spectacular National Nature Reserves. It has internationally important populations of seabirds, including puffins and Manx shearwaters, and large numbers of grey seal pups are born on the island's beaches. The breathtaking displays of spring flowers, including coast-to-coast bluebells, give the island an almost unrivalled beauty, and it is also one of the best-preserved prehistoric landscapes in Britain. The author has known the island for most of his life, including a decade spent as warden of the island. This, together with years of meticulous research, has resulted in the most complete account of the island's history and natural history ever produced, beautifully illustrated throughout with his own exquisite photographs of species and habitats. Through close co-operation with descendants of the island's former farming families, Mike Alexander has compiled a collection of important and previously unpublished photographs, which inform and enhance the historical sections. The book is written with a level of detail that makes it relevant to professional conservationists, but is presented in a style that is also accessible to amateur naturalists and anyone with an interest in the countryside. At the heart of this book is the relationship between people and place: how Skomer has been moulded over the centuries to meet the needs of a succession of inhabitants. This is a universal theme that transcends the boundaries of this tiny fragment of land, and would be relevant to anyone who is curious about the environment we have created. -- Publisher: Y Lolfa I have always had an interest in natural history, and have quite a good personal collection of books on the subject. I inherited some from my father who was a keen birdwatcher, but pride of place in my collection goes to a signed copy of Cliffs of Freedom: The story of Skomer Island, and of Reuben Codd, the last man to farm it, by Roscoe Howells. The book was a gift of appreciation from the author to my late uncle who had read the original manuscript and who, Howells modestly claimed, 'gave it some of the polish it so sadly lacked'. The book was published in 1961, by the then leading Welsh publisher, Gomerian Press, Llandysul. Fast-forward 60 years and we have this majestic new publication on Skomer Island by Mike Alexander, issued by Y Lolfa of Tal-y-bont, now well-established as our leading national publisher. It is interesting to compare the two publications in terms of book production technique: the former was pioneering in its day with many illustrations, all in black and white; Alexander's work includes some valuable black and white archival photographs, but the vast majority are in colour, and they are stunningly good and are also his own work. Cliffs of Freedom is primarily a tribute to Reuben Codd, the last man to farm the island until the winter of 1947 broke his resolve, although he did keep some animals there for another decade. Alexander's volume is an all-embracing 'complete works' for which he is eminently qualified to write. He spent a decade living on Skomer from 1976 to 1986 as its head warden, ably assisted by his wife Roseanne, whose equally fascinating though very different book about the island, Waterfalls of Stars: My Ten Years on the Island of Skomer, was published by Seren in 2017. Alexander has also since had a stellar career in nature conservancy in Wales, as an administrator and lecturer. The book is enthusiastically endorsed by naturalist Iolo Williams, who in his preface agrees that this is 'the definitive work on this magical island', while Emeritus Professor Chris Perrins, of the University of Oxford, describes the book as 'a marriage of an island and a man', paying special tribute to the author's 'unrivalled' collection of photographs. The book is divided into five main sections. The first is a short introduction to the topography, geology, geomorphology and climate of the island. Surprisingly, the rainfall in Skomer is recorded as 22% below the Welsh average. The second section is devoted to the history of the island, commencing with its prehistoric settlements, which are deemed to represent one of the best-preserved landscapes of this era in Britain. This section also chronicles the various owners and lessees of the island, including J. J. Neale and Robert Drane, amateur naturalists, who were probably the first to appreciate Skomer's wildlife, although they merrily slaughtered many predatory species, after taking a ten-year lease on the island from the Kensington Estate in 1905! Drane is, however, credited with identifying a new species - the Skomer vole. The year 1959 witnessed the most significant change in the status of Skomer when, after protracted negotiations, it was purchased by the Nature Conservancy Council, and designated a National Nature Reserve, before being leased to the West Wales Field Society. The third section, and the longest, details the main breeding birds of the island. Skomer is, of course, famous for its seabirds, notably the migratory Manx shearwater, and it claims the undisputed largest colony of this bird in the world, with 350,000 breeding pairs recorded in 2018. The status and prevalence of gulls, auks, owls, crows (including the majestic chough), wildfowl, wading birds and farmland species are also chronicled in some detail. I particularly enjoyed the author's chapter on the gulls, and his stout defence of this much maligned species. It was also illuminating to read why and how the decline in the coastal fishing industry and the demise of landfill sites impacted adversely on the overall population numbers of gulls. The fourth section examines the grey seal population, and the fifth and last section is devoted to the vegetation (including the flora) of the island. It is difficult to precis all the contents of this extraordinary book; suffice to say it has it all - agriculture, archaeology, conservation, etymology, folklore, history, linguistics, natural history, orthography and topography, to mention only some aspects. The human story and the detailed description of species are expertly placed in their historical context, and the present burning issues of climate change, and the curse of oceanic plastic waste (ironically an offshoot of the sometimes-dreaded oil industry which has a strong presence in neighbouring Milford Haven), are also the subject of carefully crafted impact statements. The author also notes that the development of new scientific geolocation tracking techniques is assisting our understanding of the complexities of mother nature, especially the precise migratory patterns of many species. The author has drawn upon, and fully acknowledges, the extensive research of others, as noted in the meticulous footnotes appended to each section. The addition of an index (if not wholly comprehensive) is an added bonus, as are the maps of the island, which are an important addition if only because they record many place-names which might otherwise be long forgotten. Y Lolfa and the author are to be congratulated on producing a truly wonderful book, which will surely give enormous pleasure to its readers. -- Richard E. Huws @ www.gwales.com

Skomer is a captivating Welsh island and one of Britain's most spectacular National Nature Reserves. It has internationally important populations of seabirds, including puffins and Manx shearwaters, and large numbers of grey seal pups are born on the island's beaches. The breathtaking displays of spring flowers, including coast-to-coast bluebells, give the island an almost unrivalled beauty, and it is also one of the best-preserved prehistoric landscapes in Britain. The author has known the island for most of his life, including a decade spent as warden of the island. This, together with years of meticulous research, has resulted in the most complete account of the island's history and natural history ever produced, beautifully illustrated throughout with his own exquisite photographs of species and habitats. Through close co-operation with descendants of the island's former farming families, Mike Alexander has compiled a collection of important and previously unpublished photographs, which inform and enhance the historical sections. The book is written with a level of detail that makes it relevant to professional conservationists, but is presented in a style that is also accessible to amateur naturalists and anyone with an interest in the countryside. At the heart of this book is the relationship between people and place: how Skomer has been moulded over the centuries to meet the needs of a succession of inhabitants. This is a universal theme that transcends the boundaries of this tiny fragment of land, and would be relevant to anyone who is curious about the environment we have created. -- Y Lolfa

Author Information

Mike Alexander spent 10 years as warden of Skomer Island. He is a trustee and director of the Wildlife Trust for South and West Wales, the organisation responsible for managing Skomer, and was recently elected Chairman of the island's Advisory Committee. He managed the National Nature Reserves throughout Wales and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and for the past 10 years, he has been the Chairman of a Welsh Government-sponsored organisation called PONT, which seeks to bridge the gap between farmers and nature conservation. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, as well as a lecturer at Bangor University and Birkbeck, University of London. His book, Management Planning for Nature Conservation, has become the standard text on the subject and is now in its second edition, published in 2013 by Springer. His stunning photographs have been widely published in books and in magazines such as BBC Countryfile, to which he is a regular contributor. Examples of his photography can be seen on www.landscapeswales.com.

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