Just this past Friday, I received a press release from Princeton University Press announcing their forthcoming publication this coming February of a significant new book in popular ornithology: Vagrancy in Birds by Alexander Lees and James Gilroy. Thinking that the book seemed familiar, I went back through my notes on announced forthcoming books of natural history and – low and behold – it’s also being published in the UK under the famous Helm imprint, therefore Bloomsbury will be publishing it prior to that February 2022 date; this coming December as it so happens.
Such is the way with things when one is a naturalist in the US – it takes a while for many significant new books on natural history subjects from the UK to reach these shores, if indeed they ever see publication here at all. Fortunately, university presses such as Princeton’s, as well as University of Chicago’s, make the effort to bring many such works to eagerly awaiting readers in the former colonies. And we can be jolly glad they do; many of the exquisite works in the category of British nature writing never make the crossing at all. It’s enough to make one chew one’s own foot off…
But enough of my grumpy wandering.
Needless to say, with new book on an ornithological subject now announced for publication very soon in the UK, and its US publication scheduled for early next year, I would have wagered a moderate sum of money that I’d soon see a review of it in our friend Dr. Avery’s blog for his Sunday Book Review. And it’s a wager I would have won, as this present Sunday saw the publication of just such a review.
“This is a scientific investigation and account of why and how birds turn up a long way from where they might be expected” begins Mark. “It’s the science behind the biology which enables twitching to be a hobby. Both the authors are academics, both are birders – it’s a potent combination.”
I encourage you to wander over to Mark’s blog and read his complete review of this clearly noteworthy forthcoming book.
Links to Dr. 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 entirely his own.
