Nigel Andrew
Beware the Cassowary
Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the World
By Tim Low
Yale University Press 406pp £20 order from our bookshop
Big, loud, belligerent, gregarious, fiercely competitive – in many ways Australia’s birds conform to the negative stereotype of their human compatriots. Happily, though, these less than attractive traits are not the only things that make Australia’s birds distinctive, as Tim Low, an eminent field biologist, explains in this illuminating and engaging study. They are at the very heart of the story of the world’s birds: it is to Australia that the world owes all its songbirds, parrots and several other bird groups.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Thirkell was a product of her time and her class. For her there are no sacred cows, barring those that win ribbons at the Barchester Agricultural.'
The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency