That title's not fair ..... but I couldn't resist it ! It's a good book really ... for its time. That's Richard Millington's lavishly-illustrated account of a year (1980) of twitching . When it came out in 1981 there weren't many books like that.... in those days "the birdwatching fraternity " ( ho-ho) was to a certain extent anti-twitching..... and twitchers were not regarded, in the main .. as "proper" birders. And now there are loads ... so I think it suffers by comparison. I know I very much enjoyed reading ( and re-reading) it at the time, especially as I was going to Norfolk most summers and found the information about birding sites very helpful. And all us low-listers could walk past his house as we staggered past under the weight of our hefty scopes. The illustrations have also not stood the test of time well.... by modern standards they are rather formal ..... in my humble opinion. Beautifully executed ...... but a trifle static. When you compare it to, say, "The Big Bird Race" it looks very formal and dry. But others could well say ... TBBR is too "matey" and "frivolous" ... fair enough. Another thing about it is a distinct lack of "other birders" ..... obviously they were much thinner on the ground back then, but most of the accounts are devoid of anybody else. So to a modern reader it all seems rather underpopulated. And on that note, let's have the music ...Nine Inch Nails ... Where is everybody ? After writing that, I thought some more about the "lack of other people" in the book. Is it true ?
I'm sure that when I first read it I didn't notice that at all ... so I'm going to "look into it" as they say. .... see you next time. With all the facts.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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