Skylarks with Rosie


Book Description

A bestselling British birder, naturalist, writer and broadcaster leads us on a springtime journey of discovery through daily walks in the area surrounding his home, highlighting the joys of connecting with wildlife and our environment. As spring arrives, Stephen Moss’s Somerset garden is awash with birdsong: chiffchaffs, wrens, robins and more. Overhead, buzzards soar, ravens tumble and the season gathers pace. But this equinox is unlike any other. As the nation goes into lockdown, Stephen records the wildlife around his home, with his fox-red Labrador, Rosie, by his side. When old routines fall away, and blue skies are no longer crisscrossed by contrails, they discover the bumblebees, butterflies and birdsong on their local patch. This evocative account underlines how a global crisis changed the way we relate to the natural world, giving us hope for the future. And it puts down a marker for a new normal: when, during that brief but unforgettable spring, nature gave us comfort, hope and joy.




Skylarks with Rosie


Book Description

As spring arrives, Stephen Moss’s Somerset garden is awash with birdsong: chiffchaffs, wrens, robins and more. Overhead, buzzards soar, ravens tumble and the season gathers pace. But this equinox is unlike any other. As the nation goes into lockdown, Stephen records the wildlife around his home, with his fox-red Labrador, Rosie, by his side. When old routines fall away, and blue skies are no longer crisscrossed by contrails, they discover the bumblebees, butterflies and birdsong on their local patch. This evocative account underlines how a global crisis changed the way we relate to the natural world, giving us hope for the future. And it puts down a marker for a new normal: when, during that brief but unforgettable spring, nature gave us comfort, hope and joy.




Singing Like Larks


Book Description

Birds are beloved for their song and have featured in our own music for centuries. Singing Like Larks opens a rare window onto birdlife, folklore, traditional verse, and song writing, especially in the British Isles. In this charming volume, folklore, verse, and nature writing combine to explore why birds appear in so many folk songs, with song lyrics, history, and anecdotes drawing on a rich heritage. Ornithological folk songs are themselves something of a threatened species. Melodies lost in the passage of time, their lyrics tucked in archives, our awareness of birds, their song and our own traditions must be passed down from one generation to the next. Lifetimes of wisdom are etched into these songs, preserving the natural rhythms of times past and our connection to feathered friends. A treasury of bird-related folk songs, this is also an account of one young nature writer’s journey into the world of folk music, and a joyous celebration of song, the seasons, and our love of birds.




Dancing with Bees


Book Description

A Journey Back to Nature




Wild Hares and Hummingbirds


Book Description

"The village of Mark on the Somerset Levels is a watery wonderland, rich in wildlife: rooks and roe deer; sparrows and snowdrops; the iconic brown hare and the spectacular hummingbird hawk-moth. As the year unfolds, Stephen Moss witnesses the landscape as it passes from deep snow to spring blosson, through the heat haze of summer to the chill winds of autumn, from the first hazel catkins to the swallows returning from Africa. [This] is both the story of a small corner of the West Country and a celebration of the natural world."--Back cover.




The Consolation of Nature


Book Description

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST NATURE BOOKS OF 2020 SHORTLISTED FOR THE RICHARD JEFFERIES SOCIETY & WHITE HORSE BOOKSHOP LITERARY PRIZE 'Lovely: full of fascinating detail and anecdote, but the undertow of the virus moving in real time beneath its sunlit surface gives it a unique emotional heft.' -The Times 'A literary window into the wonderful wild world during lockdown... a charming book.' -Daily Mail 'An entrancing testament to nature's power to restore us to ourselves.' -Ruth Padel Nature took on a new importance for many people when the coronavirus pandemic arrived, providing solace in a time of great anxiety - not least because the crisis struck at the beginning of spring, the season of light, growth, rebirth and renewal. Three writers, close friends but living in widely separated, contrasting parts of the country, resolved to record their experiences of this extraordinary spring in intimate detail, to share with others their sense of the wonder, inspiration and delight the natural world can offer. The Consolation of Nature is the story of what they discovered by literally walking out from their front doors.




Skylarks


Book Description

Karen Gregory's heartfelt, thought-provoking second novel about love against the odds is perfect for readers of Lisa Williamson, Sara Barnard and Sarah Crossan. 'We watch the bird as it flies high above us, singing like it's the only thing in the world that matters. And I feel it – that life can be beautiful. That there are possibilities.' Keep your head down and don't borrow trouble is the motto Joni lives by, and so far it's seen her family through some tough times. It's not as if she has the power to change anything important anyway. Like Dad's bad back, or the threat of losing their house. So when Annabel breezes into her life, Joni's sure they're destined to clash. Pretty, poised, privileged – the daughter of the richest family in town must have it easy. But sometimes you find a matching spirit where you least expect it. Sometimes love can defy difference. And sometimes life asks you to be bigger and braver ... Praise for Karen Gregory's debut, Countless: 'A heartbreaking, hopeful and highly unusual debut' – Metro 'Proving that human resilience may wilt, but it will never die' – United by Pop




The Swallow


Book Description

From the bestselling author of The Robin, The Wren and The Twelve Birds of Christmas. With around 700,000 breeding pairs, the swallow is one of the most familiar birds in Britain. Though we consider the swallow to be 'our' bird, we also share this beloved creature with millions of others across the globe. Whilst we see it on a daily basis for half the year, the swallow then flies south to Africa, living on only in our memory in the long, dark winter. In The Swallow Stephen Moss documents a year of observing the swallow close to home and in the field to shed light on the secret life of this extraordinary bird. We trace the swallow's life cycle and journey, including the epic 12,000-mile round trip it takes every year, to enable it to enjoy a life of almost eternal sunshine, and the key part the swallow plays in our traditional and popular culture. With beautiful illustrations throughout, this captivating year-in-the-life biography reveals the hidden secrets of this charismatic and beautiful bird. PRAISE FOR STEPHEN MOSS: 'A superb naturalist and writer' Chris Packham 'Inspired, friendly and blessed with apparently limitless knowledge' Peter Marren 'Moss has carved out an enviable niche as a chronicler of the natural world' Daily Mail




Invitation to the Married Life


Book Description

The married couples in this book have two things in common: a skill in the duplicity that flourishes even in happy marriages, and an invitation to the Farthingoes' ball. In the months preceding the party, we learn something of their double lives: the faces that each one exposes to their spouses and to the world give little hint of their complex and secret tribulations. By the time they arrive at the ball, each clutching his or her different hopes and fears, we have become familiar with their unsmooth paths, and shared many a humorous escapade or private tragedy with Rachel and Thomas, Mary and Bill, Ursula and Martin, Frances and Toby, as well as the alluring R. Cotterman and the only questing bachelor, Ralph. Sophisticated, sympathetic, witty and razor-sharp in its observations of the sub-text of married life, this is a wonderfully accomplished and enjoyable novel which develops totally out of the characters it creates.




A Sky Full of Starlings


Book Description

Stephen Moss began on 1st January 2007 to chronicle each species of bird as he was seeing it for the first time, and continued to do so until 31st December. Here he writes about what he saw, where he saw it, who he was with, and what it made him think and feel.