The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers

I live very near the sea(sometimes too near!) and see gulls and others on a daily basis. I bought this book to furtherwhat I already know and though I am only a third of the way through, I would not hesitate in recommending it toothers. Every page is a school day, a wonderful blend of the scientific and the poetic, words flow from the pages like the waves and I now look at my gulls, gannets and guillemots with real admiration for surviving and breeding in such atough environment. From now on, this exceptional work will be on the bedside table for relaxation and reference-a real treasure.

A sensational book which has been an absolute eye-opener to the world of the fulmer, the puffin, the kittiwake, the guillemot, the razorbill, the shearwater and the albatross to name but a few. To think that the navigational skills of all these remarkable birds take them on journeys all over our planet using the winds to migrate and their sense of smell to return year on year to breed in their colonies. What an inspiration they are and a source of wonderment. Adam Nicolson has written a classic

This took me longer to read than it should, because I had to stop halfway through and read another book for work. But I couldn't wait to get back to this. Not only did it highlight the literary inadequacies of an otherwise perfectly reasonable book, it served as a kind of comfort blanket during a difficult couple of weeks. Not that there's much comforting about the plight of seabirds in our globally warmed, plastic polluted oceans. If there's one thing designed to alleviate the anxiety of Brexit it's the tragedy of humanity as it continues on not only a suicidal self-destruction mission but clearly seems bent on taking most of the planet with it. Nicolson magnifies the enormity of that tragedy by capturing perfectly the beauty, the delicacy, the ingenuity and poetry of life if not (always) on the ocean wave then in the air above it, or nesting near it on some of the remotest outcrops of land. It's a heroic tale, told heroically. Let's just hope and pray for a happy ending to this story.

This book is a revelation! The author Adam Nicolson, husband of gardener Sarah Raven, son of Nigel Nicholson, grandson of the writers Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson, owner of Sissinghurst Castle and Garden (now maintained by the National Trust). Quite a pedigree. And quite an author as well. It is well researched and written with a deep knowledge, understanding and love of the lives and perils of his 10 chosen seabirds. Some of the information is barely creditable and almost beyond belief. It is a splendidly riveting and enjoyable read.

Simply put The Seabird’s Cry is fabulous. I’ve often overlooked seabirds but this wonderful book has brought into focus the hard and unrelenting world such birds inhabit. I will never look at a fulmar again without a feeling of awe and total respect. The account of one particular bird travelling 3,900 miles to fly from the nest in Scotland to feed in the North Atlantic and return in two weeks’ time to relieve it’s partner and take it’s turn to sit on the nest would have sounded fanciful had it not had a tracker attached to it to authenticate it’s journey. This brilliant read full of facts about hardy and very resourceful seabirds is highly recommended.