Why am I passionate about this?

I have been fortunate to be able to turn my childhood birdwatching into a career in ornithology. Scientists are sometimes accused of being cold and heartless, but most of the ornithologists I know are driven by a passion to protect and understand birds. At school, I only really liked biology and art. I hated history, but later in life I discovered the vast riches embedded in the history of ornithology and I am fascinated by how we know what we know about birds. This in turn has sparked ideas that have allowed me to discover and explore new areas of bird study. Above all, I love telling people about birds.


I wrote

Book cover of Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation

What is my book about?

Lockdown and a sense of impending doom provided the impetus for this book. People have interacted with birds — hunting,…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature

Tim Birkhead Why did I love this book?

Nick Davies and I conducted our PhDs at the same time, his on how birds forage, mine on guillemot (murre) behavior. Nick went on to spend several decades studying cuckoos, stepping in Darwin’s footsteps to unravel the array of wonderful adaptations that allow brood parasites, like cuckoos, to thrive. His Cuckoo is an emotive, engaging, and accessible account of that painstaking and ingenious research and a model of popular science writing.

By Nick Davies,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Cuckoo as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Beloved as the herald of spring, cuckoos have held a place in our affections for centuries. The oldest song in English celebrates the cuckoo's arrival, telling us that 'Sumer is icumen in'. But for many other birds the cuckoo is a signal of doom, for it is Nature's most notorious cheat. Cuckoos across the world have evolved extraordinary tricks to manipulate other species into raising their young. How do they get away with it?

In this enormously engaging book, naturalist and scientist Nick Davies reveals how cuckoos trick their hosts. Using shrewd detective skills and field experiments, he uncovers an…


Book cover of Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words

Tim Birkhead Why did I love this book?

The history of ornithology is an extraordinarily rich topic and one full of interest and rewards. This book is a celebration of the beginnings of our ornithological knowledge. A classics scholar and ornithologist, Jeremy Mynott has translated all the numerous texts here himself, and in so doing providing a consistent, knowledgeable, highly readable text. One of the things that comes across so vividly in this book is how much of our knowledge about birds — including, for example, the fact that young birds, like the nightingale, acquire their song by listening to their father — were so well established so long ago! 

By Jeremy Mynott, Jeremy Mynott,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Birds in the Ancient World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Birds pervaded the ancient world. They impressed their physical presence on the daily experience and imaginations of ordinary people in town and country alike, and figured prominently in literature and art. They also provided a fertile source of symbols and stories in their myths and folklore, and were central to the ancient rituals of augury and divination. Jeremy Mynott's Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words brings together all this rich and
fascinating material for the modern reader.

Using quotations from well over a hundred classical Greek and Roman authors, all of them translated freshly into English, and nearly a…


Book cover of The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers

Tim Birkhead Why did I love this book?

A seabird colony throbs like a beating heart. In the air, on the water, and on the cliffs or grassy slopes, you can sense the push and pull of the birds. I have studied common guillemots [known as common murres in North America] at one such colony — Skomer Island, Wales — each year for almost fifty years. I live and breathe seabirds, and no one has captured the wonder and remarkable biology of this specialized group of birds like Adam Nicolson. This beautifully written book is also a cry for help for seabirds whose populations have more than halved in the last seventy years.

By Adam Nicolson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Seabird's Cry as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Enter ancient lands of wind and waves where the planet’s greatest flyers battle for survival.

As the only creatures at home on land, at sea, and in the air, seabirds have evolved to thrive in the most demanding environment on Earth.

In The Seabird’s Cry, Adam Nicolson travels ocean paths, fusing traditional knowledge with astonishing facts science has recently learned about these creatures: the way their bodies actually work, their dazzling navigational skills, their ability to smell their way to fish or home and to understand the discipline of the winds upon which they depend.

This book is a paean…


Book cover of Albert and the Whale: Albrecht Dürer and How Art Imagines Our World

Tim Birkhead Why did I love this book?

There are not many books where after reaching the end, I turn back to the beginning and start again. But this book is so fertile, so rich, so engaging, I simply couldn’t take in all of its wonderful richness in one go. Dürer has always been my artistic hero. Known for his portraits, of himself and others, I like the fact that he painted birds too, like his exquisitely observed European roller (both the whole bird and the separate wing). Philip Hoare’s sparkling text brings both Dürer and his birds to life.

By Philip Hoare,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Albert and the Whale as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN OBSERVER BEST ART BOOK OF 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2022

'This is a wonderful book. A lyrical journey into the natural and unnatural world' Patti Smith

'Everything Philip Hoare writes is bewitching' Olivia Laing

An illuminating exploration of the intersection between life, art and the sea from the award-winning author of Leviathan.

Albrecht Durer changed the way we saw nature through art. From his prints in 1498 of the plague ridden Apocalypse - the first works mass produced by any artist - to his hyper-real images of animals and…


Book cover of The End of the End of the Earth: Essays

Tim Birkhead Why did I love this book?

Compared with many of those writing about bird conservation, using his sabre-like pen, Jonathan Franzen, gets to the very heart of the issues. No one else comes close to opening up the obscene bloody thorax of Mediterranean bird-killing. In this set of essays, Franzen is the master surgeon, desperate to diagnose, expose and extract the cancer that permeates this entire region. Several million small migrant birds, such as golden orioles, bee-eaters, and warblers, are shot, trapped, and eaten here each year. These millions are from bird populations across Europe and Africa already decimated by a multitude of other things including climate change, cats, and habitat loss.

By Jonathan Franzen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The End of the End of the Earth as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A sharp and provocative new essay collection from the award-winning author of Freedom and The Corrections

In The End of the End of the Earth, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigour to the themes - both human and literary - that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we've come to expect from Franzen.

Taken together,…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation

What is my book about?

Lockdown and a sense of impending doom provided the impetus for this book. People have interacted with birds — hunting, eating, painting, and worshipping them, since the beginning of time. There’s a temptation to assume that our current values are those of our parents’ generation. They are not. Our current concern for bird populations is fragile. My hope is that awareness will help to sustain our current values. I have focussed on particular themes in particular eras, and the breadth of this topic is reflected in the five books listed here. They range from the factual to lyrical to the decidedly quirky.

I have been fortunate to have watched and studied birds across the globe for over fifty years, and by recounting some of my own experiences, I hope I may encourage young people to think more about birds, to be amazed by them, and as result, to care about them. 

Book cover of Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature
Book cover of Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words
Book cover of The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers

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A Particular Man

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Book cover of A Particular Man

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Why am I passionate about this?

About myself: As a novelist I’m crazy for detail. I believe it’s the odd and unexpected aspects of life that bring both characters and story worlds to life. This means that I try to be an observer at all times, keeping alert and using all five – and maybe six – senses. My perfect writing morning begins with a dog walk in the woods or on a beach, say, while keeping my senses sharp to the world around me and listening out for the first whisper of what the day’s writing will bring.

Lesley's book list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain

What is my book about?

This book is a literary historical novel. It is set in Britain immediately after World War II, when people – gay, straight, young, and old - are struggling to get back on track with their lives, including their love lives. Because of the turmoil of the times, the number of losses, and the dangerous and peculiar circumstances people find themselves in, sexual mores have become shaken and stirred.

But what happened after the war, in the time of healing and settling down? This novel examines the emotional, romantic, and sexual lives of three characters searching for a way to proceed.

A Particular Man

By Lesley Glaister,

What is this book about?

Love never dies in this novel by “a writer of addictive emotional thrillers” (The Independent).

Told from three perspectives A Particular Man is about love, truth and the unpredictable consequences of loss.

When Edgar dies in a Far East prisoner-of-war camp it breaks the heart of fellow prisoner Starling. In Edgar’s final moments, Starling makes him a promise. When, after the war, he visits Edgar’s family, to fulfil this promise, Edgar's mother Clementine mistakes him for another man.

Her mistake allows him access to Edgar’s home and to those who loved him, stirring powerful and disorientating emotions, and embroiling him…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in birds, Germany, and Rome?

Birds 178 books
Germany 492 books
Rome 339 books