Description
Book SynopsisConor Mark Jameson has spent most of his life exploring the natural environment and communicating his enthusiasm for it to family, friends and, more recently, readers of a range of newspapers and magazines. Shrewdunnit brings together the best of these dispatches, alongside unpublished essays, in a poetic and evocative journal that inspires and delights. Jameson’s prose is fresh and in places irreverent, with a hint of mischief and a dash of wit.
From his back door to the peaks of New Zealand and the swamp forests of the Peruvian Amazon, he carries on the biogumentary style he perfected in his earlier books showing – never telling – how to bring nature and conservation home. He may just have invented a genre.
Praise for Silent Spring Revisited
“A vividly told, beautifully written account of the environmentalist movement of the last fifty years and his own involvement in it ... the author takes his place among the pre-eminent nature writers of our times. His clear, vivid writing skillfully weaves political and cultural history, personal observation and passionate advocacy for the conservation of our diminishing wildlife to create a book that will endure in the annals of natural history." Marie Winn
“If Nick Hornby loved nature, he might write a book like this.” Martin Harper, RSPB Director of Conservation
“A lively read... what makes Jameson’s work especially enjoyable is the personal slant...” Matt Merritt, Editor, Birdwatching
“A fine writer, who brings together an artist’s sensibility with a conservationist’s sense of reality... a vital read.” John Fanshawe, Birdwatch
Praise for Looking for the Goshawk
“Conor’s cultured writing and enthusiasm for the natural world and the people, like him, who care about it, will carry you along through the chapters.” Mark Avery
"Equally stirring as his Silent Spring Revisited... a passionate detective story... descriptive, at times poetic prose..." Peter Goodfellow, Devon Birds
Trade ReviewShrewdunnit is done in an old form, one currently neglected, perhaps as old- fashioned, in the US, and still done very well in England-- a year's observations, mostly of one place (although he is a thoroughly modern naturalist and also goes abroad); a phenology, a record, a series of sketches light and serious.
Such a book stands or falls by two things: how well the writer knows his chosen place, and how well he writes, how originally he he can see. Conor succeeds on both counts.
-- Stephen Bodio * Querencia (blog) *
"It's a great read, and it's hard to get through it without at least once promising yourself to live a little bit more deliberately, and attentively. Truly inspirational."
-- Matt Merritt * Birdwatching Magazine *
"blends environmental knowledge with gentle humour.... while these diary pieces are packed with information, their pace is leisured and their tone deceptively simple... There is a quirkiness to his wildlife passions. This warm-hearted book also displays a gift for fine writing... underscores why his RSPB column is so popular."
-- Mark Cocker * Countryfile, June 2014 *
