A note to Father Christmas

Hopefully I've been a good boy over these last 12 months. Could I please ask for the following books to be placed under the tree in the early hours of Christmas Morning...

The Fly Trap by Frederik Sjoberg
Swedish biologist regales us with his memoirs of catching hoverflies on a small island. Finally an English version has been published, this book was recommended to me by Pete Burness.

A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson
I thoroughly enjoyed his bee book 'A sting in the tale' and this follow-up is an account of his attempts to entice invertebrates into a French garden through selective planting and management. Just up my street.

Claxton by Mark Cocker
A collection of essays written by the birder-author based on his observations in the Suffolk countryside. This man is up there with Roger Deakin and Richard Mabey as far as I'm concerned.

That should see my reading material sorted up until the new year...

Comments

GeoffB said…
Spent some time in Mark Cockers's company on Lesvos back in 2001 he was tour leading a group & T & I were on our self guided birding honeymoon ( she's a keeper ) it was our 3rd trip .. a real nice bloke and a bit of a raconteur probably helped by the fact that the other tour leaders were Rich Campey & Dave Cotterridge/Rene Pop who arent exactly shrinking violets ..copious amounts of Mythos after they had done their log each evening ...ps have all his books !
17 December 2014 at 12:02
Steve Gale said…
Rene Pop appears in one of my favourite books 'Blood Knots'. Musician, birder, fisherman - sounded like an interesting bloke.
17 December 2014 at 16:14
Paul Trodd said…
Agree with you about Mark Cocker Steve, he is a top notch natural history writer and can make a seemingly boring subject highly readable - I bet he could even make yellow-legged gulls interesting!. And as I refer to Birds Britannica a fair bit am constantly amazed at the clarity and attention to detail of such a tome. Will have to get Claxton now...
17 December 2014 at 18:53
Steve Gale said…
"I bet he could make yellow-legged gulls interesting" - that's a tall order even for Shakespeare...
17 December 2014 at 19:51
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