I’m beginning to wonder if Mark Avery has even risen from his reading chair for the past fortnight as he posted three new book reviews to his blog this Sunday.

First, he takes up Tessa Boase‘s new Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather; Fashion, Fury and Feminism – Women’s Fight for Change from Aurum Press. Mark refers to this as “a challenging read,” and I suspect, rightly so. In it, the reader is introduced to Etta Lemon, “a driving force behind the RSPB for decades but also a leading member of the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League.” Given, of course, that most of us today are conditioned to prefer the subjects of histories to be either entirely laudable or absolutely damnable, a pro-animal welfare yet anti-feminist activist may give many a bit of cognitive dissonance. However as Mark notes, the book is a “fascinating and fast-moving read.” It certainly sounds like one worth my time to read as well.

Next up is a review penned by Ian Carter of Seán Lysaght’s Eagle Country from Little Toller Books. The recounting of Lysaght’s trips into Mayo and the more remote locations in the west of Ireland where formerly were to be found that country’s now extirpated sea and golden eagle species, Carter notes that the author “brings his poet’s eye for observation to this exploration of his home country.” I suspect that this may be another example of the “place writing” genre with which I’ve been seeking to become more familiar, and if Carter’s review is anything to go by, Lysaght’s Eagle Country looks as though it needs to be added to my reading table as well.

Finally, Mark reaches back into the past and examines an updated edition of David Lack’s 1956 book Swifts in a Tower to be published this June by Unicorn Publishing in association with the RSPB and their Oxford Swift City Project. As I’ll be in Oxford this August, I was particularly pleased that Mark brought this book to my attention, giving me a little time to read up on the fascinating history of “David Lack’s study of Swifts [which] took place in the tower of the Oxford University Museum and has continued to this day.”

Links to Mark Avery’s Sunday book reviews appear in The Well-read Naturalist by special arrangement. You can find all of Mark’s past reviews as well as a wide-ranging collection of his other writings on his Standing Up for Nature website. Mark’s opinions regarding the books he reviews are his own.