📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Birds from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
First published 2017
Revised November 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

Our smallest creatures seem to demand the most rapt attention. The poems in this revised edition of our much-loved title suggest that there’s something in the nature of a bird that makes it particularly suited to the small and intense space that is a poem.

The ten selections are little miracles in themselves, capturing the quirks of habit or appearance that distinguish one species from another. For Jean Atkin a chough is an embodiment of King Arthur, while for Katrina Porteous a skylark offers:

“…all the music the heart needs,

Full of its sudden fall, silent fields.”

from ‘Skylark’ by Katrina Porteous

The poems beautifully imagine the brief and joyful lives of birds, while teasing out what thrills and moves us when we encounter them. A poem, it transpires, can reveal just as much as a pair of binoculars.

Poems by Jean Atkin, Alison Brackenbury, John Clare, Emily Dickinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Rebecca Goss, Thomas Hardy, Caleb Parkin, Katrina Porteous and Lynne Wycherley.

Donation to The Owls Trust 

📖 My Review..

I’m extremely fortunate to have an interesting collection of birds visit our garden bird feeder. Nothing fancy, just chattering sparrows, chirpy robins, excitable starlings and mellifluous blackbirds, but they’re all a delightful addition to the garden and such fun to observe. This anthology of ten beautifully written poems about birds all capture the distinct personality of these tiny creatures. 

To hear their hopeful song as they herald spring is something special to treasure and captured beautifully in this lovely poem:

From “Hope” is a thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson 

“Hope” is a thing with feathers-

That perches in the soul

And sings a tune without the words-

And never stops -at-all..’

I will always remember the pure joy of observing a murmuration of starlings and feeling the beat of thousands of tiny wings or of regularly seeing those long  ‘V’ formations of birds as they fly overhead in spring and autumn :

I sense an agitation in the sky,

long Vs trailing like pennants

Altocirrus, swans white

As the tundra they come from

From Berwick Swans at Ouse Washes by Lynne Wycherley

Originally published in 2017 this anthology of Ten Poems about Birds has been reissued with a striking new cover. Each of the poems are a delightful addition and bring something special to treasure. It would be a delightful gift instead of a card for any ornithologist or simply a reminder that we should all enjoy the special kind of magic that birds bring into our lives.

 

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

Twitter/X @poetrycandle 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

📖 Book Review ~ Goshawk Summer by James Aldred

 

Happy Publication Day

Elliot and Thompson
29 July 2021

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

In early 2020, wildlife cameraman James Aldred was commissioned to film the lives of a family of Goshawks in the New Forest, his childhood home. He began to plan a treetop hide in a remote site that would allow him to film the Gos nest, the newly hatched chicks and the lives of these elusive and enchanting birds.

Then lockdown. And as the world retreated, something remarkable happened. The noise of our everyday stilled. No more cars, no more off-roaders, no more airplanes roaring in the skies, no one in the Goshawk woods – except James.

At this unique moment, James was granted a once in a lifetime opportunity to keep filming. And so, over Spring and into Summer, he began to record his experiences in a place empty of people but filled with birdsong and new life.

Amidst the fragility and the fear, there was silver moonlight, tumbling fox cubs, calling curlew and, of course, the soaring Goshawks – shining like fire through one of our darkest times.

A Goshawk summer unlike any other.

My Thoughts..

Over the past months of the pandemic I think some of us have been privileged to discover something of the beauty of the natural world and the calm mindfulness of walking in woodland, admiring the sounds of birds and the soft whisper of the wind in the trees. Whilst I didn't discover a Goshawk nest I did marvel at seeing things in nature I hadn't seen before, like watching a huge murmuration of starlings in the early dusk of a winter afternoon, and being in awe of the magnitude and magic of a natural spectacle of nature.

In Goshawk Summer, Emmy Award winning filmmaker, James Aldred writes very eloquently about his once in a lifetime privilege of observing, at close quarters, a female goshawk, and her mate, as they attempt to rear their offspring, in a place where even the hunters face their own immediate danger.

The country has been in lockdown for just two weeks in April 2020 when the author is given the unique opportunity to film a pair of mated goshawks in the New Forest. Magnificent hunting birds, who value their privacy so much that tracking their chosen nesting area makes for fascinating reading. However, it is in the description of these ancient hunters which brings the story to life with a lyricism which caught my attention from the very first page...

"The goshawk. Steel grey, the colour of chainmail. Sharp as a sword. A medieval bird for a medieval forest. A timeless scene..."

The book moves softly, and silently, through the months of summer from April, until the end of June 2020, and does so in diary entries which record just what James observed in the woods, his relationship with nature, and more importantly what he learned about, and from the goshawks, as they live out their challenging, but majestic lives. Sharply observed, every nuance of the woodland area is investigated and brought to life, and the narrative is so finely placed it feels cinematic in quality just as though you are cocooned high above the canopy of the New Forest watching as the ancient woodland unfolds deep below you to share its innermost secrets.

I found the whole of Goshawk Summer quite magical and if you enjoy the natural world, then I am sure you will too. A portion of royalties from Goshawk Summer are being donated to the Marie Curie charity.

About the Author

James Aldred is an EMMY award-winning cameraman, adventurer and professional tree climber who has made a career out of travelling the world, filming wildlife for the BBC and climbing trees.

Author website

Twitter @jraldred #GoshawkSummer

@eantbooks

Review ~ The Feather Thief by Kirk W Johnson

Hutchinson
26 April 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

This book really took me by surprise as I had no idea that bird feathers were such a valuable commodity, and, as such, are open to thievery on really a grand scale. That's just what happened in the summer of 2009 when twenty year old musician, Edward Rist broke into the Natural History Museum at Tring in Hertfordshire and stole a huge assortment of wild bird specimens which had been collected centuries before by some of the very first naturalists.

I expected the book to mainly concentrate on this audacious theft, which of course it does in some detail, however, the early part of the book concentrates on the obsession with collecting natural specimens, initially for curiosity and then for scientific research purposes, but also in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for use by the fashion industry. I was shocked to learn that by 1900 some two hundred million North American birds were killed every year in order to satisfy the need for bird feathers for use in the millinery trade, and, as bird numbers depleted so the net worth of their precious feathers increased.

By the time Edward Rist had his fascination for bird feathers, their usage had become consistent with  the world of salmon fishing, where intricate flies, made from original and highly prized rare bird feathers, exchanged hands for large sums of money. The chapters which detail the Tring Heist are absolutely fascinating, and as the reasons for Rist's theft becomes apparent, so the strange and very secret subculture that exists around fly fishing comes vividly to life. I was astonished to learn of the lengths that some people are prepared to go in order to obtain the feathers they crave, and I was equally disturbed to find out that large sums are paid for extremely rare bird feathers. 

The book is an absolute page turner, beautifully written by a man who was determined to see this story told, and he does so with real flair, and fine attention to detail, so that even if you know absolutely nothing about birds, like me, or indeed fly fishing, like me, you can't help but be drawn into this fascinating true crime story. There are also a number of very interesting photographs and illustrations which help to put the subject into context.

I read The Feather Thief constantly surprised, and more than a little upset at the thought that so many billions of beautiful birds have died to satisfy our whims and fancies. I will never look at displays of bird feathers in quite the same way ever again.

About the Author

Kirk Wallace Johnson is the author of To Be a Friend is Fatal and the founder of the List Project. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among other publications. He is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the American Academy in Berlin, and the USC Annenberg Center. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son, and daughter.

Website

Twitter @KirkWJohnson #TheFeatherThief

Amazon UK

Review ~ A Sweet, Wild Note by Richard Smyth

Elliot & Thompson
1 March 2018

When I was twelve I joined the Young Ornithologist's Club and so began my life long love of wild birds. There's nothing more relaxing,than listening, in the early morning, to the birds as they chirrup and tweet and go about their business, or to sit outdoors and listen to the steady chatter of busy sparrows, or the cheerful soaring of a blackbird in fine voice. I don't claim to be knowledgeable about birds, I just love them for joy they bring to my world.

A Sweet, Wild Note is a delightful book which allows a privileged glimpse into the complicated world of birdsong. From the reasons why birds sing the way they do, through to the association of birds in literature, drama, music and science, there is something very precious in what they share with us. I can still remember with great clarity the eeriness of the 1999 solar eclipse when all the birds went silent for a few minutes and I realised then just what a strange and unearthly world we would have if we had no birdsong.

The author writes very knowledgeably and shares his own personal stories and anecdotes alongside facts and figures which makes the book so easily readable. I really enjoyed dipping in and out of the chapters, picking up snippets of information that I never knew I needed to know about birdsong but which collectively enhance my understanding of what makes birdsong, and its connection to us, so very, very, precious.

The glorious book cover enhances what's inside to perfection and if you're a bird enthusiast I am sure that you will enjoy this book for its factual information, but it's also equally fascinating for those of us who just love the simple pleasure of listening to the daily soundtrack of the beautiful birds who inhabit our gardens, woodlands and landscapes. 

About the Author

Richard Smyth writes about nature, history, books, philosophy, art, sport and anything else that occurs to him. His latest book, 'A Sweet, Wild Note: What We Hear When The Birds Sing', is an acclaimed cultural history of birdsong.

Website

Twitter @RSmithFreelance

Elliot&Thompson

Amazon UK