John Cantelo
Well-known member
I must confess that I had fairly low expectations of this book - another pre-Christmas pot-boiler to chisel out more money from the birding bibliophile. However, having seen it today I must confess my cynicism, if not misplaced, was somewhat allayed by the handsome photos. There are some very attractive offerings here - and some not so attractive too; the shot of what seems to be a still living duckling being handed (beaked?) over to a brood of Snowy Owls will surely upset some readers. As for the text I suspect that, with so little space for each essay, Michael Elphick, was on a hiding to nothing. People will inevitably, and probably unfairly, see omissions in the text, but, given the limitations, they seemed to have been well done in my cursory glance. I'm sure on a closer it's possible to nit-pick about which birds were put in and which left out, but the selecton looks pretty balanced, John.
