J. A. Baker

Mark Cocker

The Peregrine, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1967, recounts a single year from the author's ten–year obsession with the peregrines that wintered near his home in eastern England. The writing is lyrically charged throughout, as the author's role of diligent observer gives way to a personal transformation, as Baker becomes, in the words of James Dickey, "a fusion of man and bird."

With the Hill of Summer

Peregrine

a meditation on birds, landscape and nature

Crow country

Environmental thought and politics have become parts of mainstream cultural life in Britain. The wish to protect wildlife is now a central goal for our society, but where did these 'green? ideas come from? And who created the cherished institutions, such as the National Trust or the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, that are now so embedded in public life with millions of members? From the flatlands of Norfolk to the tundra-like expanse of the Flow Country in northern Scotland, acclaimed writer on nature Mark Cocker sets out on a personal quest through the British countryside to find the answers to these questions. He explores in intimate detail six special places that embody the history of conservation or whose fortunes allow us to understand why our landscape looks as it does today. We meet key characters who shaped the story of the British countryside - Victorian visionaries like Octavia Hill, founder of the National Trust, as well as brilliant naturalists such as Max Nicholson or Derek Ratcliffe, who helped build the very framework for all environmental effort. This is a book that looks to the future as well as exploring the past. It asks searching questions like who owns the land and why? And who benefits from green policies? Above all it attempts to solve a puzzle- why do the British seem to love their countryside more than almost any other nation, yet they have come to live amid one of the most denatured landscapes on Earth? Radical, provocative and original, Our Placetackles some of the central issues of our time. Yet most important of all, it tries to map out how this overcrowded island of ours could be a place fit not just for human occupants but also for its billions of wild citizens.

Our Place: Can We Save Britain's Wildlife Before It Is Too Late?

The Story of British Travel Writing

Loneliness and Time

Since 1972 Mark Cocker has been a member of a community of obsessional people, almost all male, who sacrifice most of their spare time, a good deal of money, sometimes their chances of a partner or family, even occasionally their lives, to watch birds. Birders is the story of this community, of its characters, its rules, its equipment and its adventures - many of which are hilariously funny, Birders is also a work of love - the story of what birds can do to the human heart.

Birders

The Birds and the Bees series was designed for Vintage Classics by Timorous Beasties, the Scottish studio famous for their designs inspired by the natural world One night Mark Cocker followed the roiling, deafening flock of rooks and jackdaws which regularly passed over his Norfolk home on their way to roost in the Yare valley. From the moment he watched the multitudes blossom as a mysterious dark flower above the woods, these gloriously commonplace birds became for Cocker a fixation and a way of life. Journeying across Britain, through spectacular failures, magical successes and epiphanies, Cocker uncovers the mysteries of these birds' inner lives. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2008 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE

Crow Country

Soldier, Scientist, and Spy

Richard Meinertzhagen

There are 10,500 species of bird worldwide and wherever they occur people marvel at their glorious colours and their beautiful songs. We also trap and consume birds of every kind. Yet birds have not just been good to eat. Their feathers, which keep us warm or adorn our costumes, give birds unique mastery over the heavens. Throughout history their flight has inspired the human imagination so that birds are embedded in our religions, folklore, music and arts. Vast in both scope and scale, Birds and People explores and celebrates this relationship and draws upon Mark Cocker’s 40 years of observing and thinking about birds. Part natural history and part cultural study, it describes and maps the entire spectrum of our engagements with birds, drawing in themes of history, literature, art, cuisine, language, lore, politics and the environment. In the end, this is a book as much about us as it is about birds. Birds and People has been stunningly illustrated by one of Europe’s best wildlife photographers, David Tipling, who has travelled in 39 countries on seven continents to produce a breathtaking and unique collection of photographs. The book is as important for its visual riches as it is for its groundbreaking content. Birds and People is also exceptional in that the author has solicited contributions from people worldwide. Personal anecdotes and stories have come from more than 650 individuals in 81 different countries. They range from university academics to Mongolian eagle hunters, and from Amerindian shamans to some of the most celebrated writers of our age. The sheer multitude of voices in this global chorus means that Birds and People is both a source book on why we cherish birds and a powerful testament to their importance for all humanity.

Birds and People

A study of travel writing as a literary art examines the lives and works of a dozen major travel writers, including Wilfred Thesiger, Gavin Maxwell, Laurens van der Post, and Lawrence Durrell.

Hege Mehren

Kråkene har aldri blitt elsket som andre fugler. Kråka gjør ugagn, dens svarthet har gitt grådige assosiasjoner til ravn og gribb og bønder har jaktet på dem. Kråkenes land har en helt annen tilnærming til disse fuglene. En familie kjøper et nær ubeboelig hus på landsbygda i England og flytter dit med barn, bøker og femti tommeltotter. Med på kjøpet kommer også en voldsom hær med kråker og trær de kan bo i. Mark Cocker lykkes i å observere fuglene, flokkene og deres liv og mønstre uten de vanlige fordommene mot kråker. Han begynner å følge dem på deres premisser - over markene, inn i skogene - og prøver å få tak i fuglenes tankegang, mønstre og hemmeligheter. Kråkenes land er én del familiehistorie og én del fuglebok.

En meditasjon over fugler, landskap og natur

Kråkenes land

'After Mark Cocker’s glorious book, you will never look at a blackberry bush the same way again.' Philip Hoare, New Statesman In 2001 Mark Cocker moved to Claxton, a small village in Norfolk. In a series of daily writings spanning the course of a year he explores his relationship to the landscape he lives in, to nature and to all the living things around him - the birds, plants, trees, mammals, hoverflies, moths, butterflies, bush crickets, grasshoppers, ants and bumblebees. Passionate, astonishing and inspiring, this book is a celebration of the wonder that lies in our everyday experience. Shortlisted for the Royal Society of Biology Book Award, the Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards, the New Angle Prize and theThwaites Wainwright Prize

Field Notes from a Small Planet

Claxton

Richard Mabey

Unlike any other bird book, and not an identification guide, this handsome cultural study of all the birds in Britain, is a magnificent achievement and a work of huge importance. An attempt to describe the interaction of birds and humans, it captures the essence of why birds matter.

Birds Britannica

The tragic history of conflict between the Europeans and indigenous peoples spans the globe from Mexico to Australia to Africa to show the effects of the European colonial sweep.

Europe's Conquest of Indigenous Peoples

Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold

"One night Mark Cocker following the roiling, deafening flock of rooks and jackdaws which regularly passed over his Norfolk home on their way to roost in the Yare Valley. From the moment he watched the multitudes blossom as a mysterious dark flower above the night woods, these commonplace birds were unsheathed entirely from their ordinariness. They became for Cocker a fixation and a way of life. Cocker goes in search of them, journeying from the cavernous, deadened heartland of South England to the hills of Dumfriesshire, experiencing spectacular failures alongside magical successes and epiphanies. Step by step he pieces together the complexities of the birds' inner lives, the historical depth of the British relationship with the rook and the unforeseen richness hidden in that sombre voice, a raucous crow song that he calls 'our landscape made audible'. Crow Country is a prose poem in a long tradition of English pastoral writing. It is also a reminder that 'Crow Country' is not 'ours': it is a landscape which we cohabit with thousands of other species and these richly complex fellowships cannot be valued too highly."--Back cover.

'Essential reading for anybody who cares about the future’ Henry Marsh, *New Statesman Books of the Year* A radical examination of Britain's relationship with the land by one of our greatest nature writers. **SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT GOLDEN BEER BOOK PRIZE 2019** The British love their countryside more than almost any other nation, yet they live in one of the most denatured landscapes on Earth. From the flatlands of Norfolk to the tundra-like expanse of the Flow Country in northern Scotland, Mark Cocker sets out on a personal quest through the British countryside attempting to solve this puzzle. Radical, provocative and original, Our Place tackles some of the central issues of our time whilst mapping out a future in which this overcrowded island of ours could be a place fit not just for human occupants but also for its billions of wild citizens. ‘A tour de force... By turns hopeful, melancholy, humorous and heartfelt’ BBC Wildlife Book of the Month

Can We Save Britain’s Wildlife Before It Is Too Late?

Our Place

"Birds Britannica is neither an identification guide nor a behavioural study (though both these subjects enter its field). It covers cultural links; social history; birds as food; ecology; the lore and language of birds; myths, art, literature and music; anecdotes, birdsong and rare facts; modern developments; migration, the seasons and our sense of place. An attempt to describe the interaction of birds and humans, it captures the essence of why birds matter. AUTHOR BIO contd: ICHARD MABEY is Britain's foremost nature writer, as famous for the beauty of his prose as for his exceptional knowledge and insights. He wrote Flora Britannica, a truly ground-breaking book about botany and the blue-print for Birds Britannica. His previous books include Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside, The Book of Nightingales and Nature Cure. His biography of Gilbert White won the Whitbread Biography Award. CHRIS GOMERSALL (photographer and picture researcher) is renowned as one of Britain's finest wildlife photographers. He is the author of the standard book about how to photograph birds. JONATHAN ELPHICK (specialist text research) is an experienced editor specialising in wildlife subject

Mark Cocker

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