Wow! eBook
Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood
Author(s): Adam Nicolson (Author)
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication Date: September 16, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 448 pages
- ISBN-10: 0374617376
- ISBN-13: 9780374617370
Book Description
An intimate exploration of the lives of birds and their interactions with man, by a preeminent naturalist.
Close to Adam Nicolson’s home in Sussex, there is a forgotten field overrun by bracken and thicketed by brambles. It is the haunt of deer and many birds―nightingales, the occasional cuckoo, ravens, robins, owls, and in summer, the sweet-singing warblers that come north from Africa to breed in English woods.
Wanting to look and listen, to return to “bird school” and see what it might teach him, Nicolson built a small shed among the trees, a kind of man-sized birdhouse he calls an “absorbatory,” complete with nesting boxes and bird feeders. Cocooned inside season after season, he got to know the birds: where they nest, how they sing, how they mate and fight, what preys on them, what they are like as living things.
Woven through with philosophy, literature, science, and a sense of wonder, always conscious that this is an age in which the natural world is under siege, Bird School pulls back the curtain on seemingly ordinary birds, taking a long, careful, and concerned look at our relationship with the wild.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Bird School is elegant and involving. Like one of the nests Nicolson finds on his property, it’s been deftly assembled.”
―Stephen Smith, The Observer (London)
“Deeply satisfying . . . A worthy addition to a literary lineage that stretches back to the eighteenth-century writer and naturalist Gilbert White.”
―Joe Shute, The Telegraph
“Wrens, robins, buzzards, blackbirds and tits come to bird school to teach lessons about themselves alone: how they breed, fly, navigate, why they sing. Nicolson is a good student―a fine observer of the natural world―and for a while, he lives a bird lover’s dream.”
―Charlie Gilmour, The Guardian
“[A] marvellous and revelatory guide to our native bird-life . . . Bird School is a magical reminder of the rich, inexhaustible pleasures of watching wildlife and bird-life, . . . an intoxicating and joyous invitation to us all, to step out into nature and take it all in.”
―Christopher Hart, Daily Mail
“In addition to a wealth of facts about bird behavior, Nicolson has access to an endless fount of lyrical descriptions to make birds come alive on the page . . . An evocative ode to English birds that invites readers to look more closely at the world around them.”
―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In this revelatory narrative, Ondaatje Prize winner Nicolson shares his experience observing birds near his home in Sussex . . . Nicolson is especially good at illuminating what goes unseen (or unheard) . . . He also draws attention to the ways human activity, like intensive farming, has caused bird populations to plummet in recent decades. This is a beautiful love letter to the avian world.”
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Nicolson’s observations ramble with curiosity and delight in his local environment. Highly recommended for readers interested and soothed by reading about the natural world.”
―Catherine Lantz, Library Journal
“Wonderfully interspersed with his observations are quotes from poets, historical tidbits both national and local, ideas from proponents of the rewilding movement, and intimate moments with the local birds. This meditative, poetic work will find a niche in the hearts of nature and bird lovers on both sides of the pond.”
―Nancy Bent, Booklist
