As per the free downloads I’d love to hear your opinions about these books.
The British Birding Year
January’s bitter cold doesn’t freeze the birder’s enthusiasm for starting a new year list, with even ordinary species exciting a thrill. February may not be so chilly and may even prompt the odd bird into song; it’s time to mop up the more difficult winter visitors. March sees the arrival of our first non-resident breeders and lowers the curtain on Act One. But the drama continues over the next nine months in a series of personal vignettes illustrating an ever-changing birdscape.
Plus a checklist ordered by Britain’s most common birds and our migrants’ early/late dates. Enter shop for price or check the eBook
The Honeyeaters’ Tree (travel and birds)
This is a pre-release version, with a few pages still in first draft.
A quest for this quintessentially antipodean family of birds uncovers the withering tree of life and the vanishing landscapes of Australia & New Zealand.
From the UK and a Singapore stopover the traveller journeys to a week around Perth. Then two months in a campervan from Adelaide to Cairns, Queensland. He learns how the tree of life connects the whole globe and how vulnerable it is to our human onslaught.
As if the natural world were fighting back, the route also skirts floods and cyclones. A fortnight in Tasmania and Victoria, with its fatal fires, concludes this far from straightforward quest for the 73 honeyeaters. Finally, New Zealand offers a coda with its own branch of the family.
It’s not just birds that fill out the story: it’s a last chance to witness other survivors from the Triassic before they succumb to this human-caused mass extinction. Railways, cities and culture shock also play cameo roles.
Let the Time Come (apocalyptic or visionary fiction)
After centuries of abuse birds become mankind’s nemesis. It would be poetic justice, if they’d meant it. But nature isn’t like that: it just happens. Three singular people must survive bird flu pandemics while on a quest for meaning, identity and love. But time reveals one further snag for all of humanity.
Enter shop for price. From YouWriteOn: “…an original voice…” “Three good characters on which to base a strong story.” “…lucid and intelligent…”
Build a British Bird List
New to, or just recently started birding? Wonder which are the birds you’re most likely to see? The first part of this book lists 250+ species in just that order. Now you have a plan to make a solid start on your British list. The next part lists likely sites for the species towards the end of the order. An appendix gives early and late dates for most of our migrants.
Enter shop for price or check the eBook
Hidden Bristol
Stories of ghosts, tales of riots, anecdotes of love and legends of lost and forgotten Bristol. This anthology is the perfect companion to the Bristol Writers Group‘s evening of Thunderbolt Tales. Being part of the Group, I even get honourable mention from Word of Mouth for this.
Towards Mission Honeyeaters (travel and birds)
Being an account of exploring localities in Singapore & Western Australia.
Dateline: late 2008. The dried-blood peninsulas of Monkey Mia and Useless Loop give a two-fingered salute to the adventurer flying in from Asia. At Perth the more friendly welcome swallows greet the disembarking traveller. It is that quintessentially antipodean family, the honeyeaters that he seeks, though.
From hatching the master plan in the UK, via the start of the mission in Singapore, to ten days in south-west Australia, the birder also aims to push his life list towards 1,000. It’s not just birds that fill out the story: the landscapes, cities, food, drink, culture shock and vanilla tourist attractions also play cameo roles.
Plus excerpts from the rest of the adventure. Enter shop for price
British Bird Tour Books
The budget-conscious option to bird tours or hiring guides. Each booklet gives up-to-date details for an itinerary of the best sites. Find the greatest number of species while fitting in the rest of your visit. And go green too: train and bus access is also listed.
