Whenever I find myself looking at a gull and not being able to put a species level identification to it, I invariably think back to my childhood alongside the mouth of the Columbia River and lament how much of my youth was wasted in things other than learning to identify the ever-present and seemingly endless numbers of gulls in the area. Had I put even smidgen of effort into it then I would be Grand High Identifier of All Gulls today.
So when I learned, thanks to Mark Avery’s recent Sunday Book Review, of not only the existence but also quality to be found within the pages of Tim Dee’s new book Landfill from Little Toller Books, I was not unexpectedly delighted. As Mark so cleverly explains, this book “isn’t about landfill (although it is a bit). It is a book about gulls (but not just about gulls) and it is a book about the author (but not just about the author) and it is about Bristol (but not just about Bristol).” Curious to read more? I certainly was (and now having done so I hope to one day secure a copy for myself).
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.
