As Glenn Shorrock both wrote and sang in Little River Band’s 1979 song Cool Change, Well I was born in the sign of water And it’s there that I feel my best The albatross and the whales they are my brothers It’s a song I’ve long felt described me remarkably well. I was born in a […]
Not so very far along my reading of Helen Scales’ new “Eye of the Shoal,” I found myself reading about the friendship and collaboration of John Ray and Francis Willughby on the 1686 book “De Historia Piscium.” However as soon as I read Willughby’s name, my mind immediately flashed to the copy of Tim Birkhead’s recently published book “The Wonderful Mr Willughby; The First True Ornithologist” sitting on my desk. Ichthyology, ornithology – one person publishing foundational books in them both… Those were the days!
Traveling on business as I have been recently, it hasn’t taken long for me to fall behind on keeping you all up to date on what Mark’s been reviewing over on his blog. As it turns out, he been quite busy indeed! He’s published three full book reviews since we last checked in on him.
For his book review this week Mark has picked Laurence Rose’s soon-to-be-published “The Long Spring; Tracking the Arrival of Spring Through Europe” from Bloomsbury Publishing.
Recording Rose’s adventures arising from his desire to explore “Europe’s remarkable heritage of exceptional places and the wildlife, traditions and people associated with them” he followed the arrival of Spring across the continent from it’s pre-arrival February beginnings in the north of Africa to its eventual appearance in the arctic.