BIRD SCHOOL

A feast for mind and soul a treasure trove of insights into the enigmatic and enchanting world of the birds we share our lives with but barely notice I have learnt so much Every page is a thrill Bird School has opened my eyes Isabella Tree author of Wilding Step into the hide for a glorious new encounter with the British wild Close to Adam Nicolson s home in Sussex there is a forgotten field overrun by bracken and thicketed by brambles It is the haunt of deer and many birds nightingales the occasional cuckoo ravens robins owls and in summer the sweet singing warblers that come north from Africa to breed in English woods This gorgeous book charts his attempt to encounter birds to engage with a marvellous layer of life he had previously almost ignored He wanted to look and listen to return to bird school and see what it might teach him He built a small shed amongst the trees with nesting boxes and bird feeders Cocooned inside season after season he got to know the birds where they nest how they sing how they mate and fight what preys on them what they are like as living things Beautifully written and woven through with philosophy literature science and a sense of wonder always conscious that that this is an age in which the natural world