BOOKS, RADIO AND TV
Beautiful books to give this Christmas, plus what’s on Countryfile and more.
BILL BAILEY’S REMARKABLE GUIDE TO BRITISH BIRDS
BILL BAILEY, QUERCUS BOOKS, £20 In Bailey’s brilliantly off-beat style, the reader meets Britain’s avian characters. His surreal and charming sketches accompany his informative descriptions of owls, crows, eagles, wrens and more.
USE THIS IF YOU WANT TO TAKE GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS HENRY CARROLL LAURENCE KING PUBLISHING, £12.95
A simple journal full of ingenious ideas for enhancing your photographs. Suggestions include “Make light the subject of your photo” and “Tell a joke with two pictures”. Pages are allocated for the results of your experiments. A nice gift for photographers.
THE PUB PETE BROWN JACQUI SMALL PUBLISHING, £22
A beautifully presented compendium of Britain’s finest pubs, ranging from ‘architecturally interesting pubs’ ‘country pubs’ and ‘railway pubs’. A large coffeetable tome, it’s an enticing book that will make you long to wet your whistle as you browse its pages.
ALAN PARTRIDGE: NOMAD ALAN PARTRIDGE, TRAPEZE, £20
Alan Partridge walks Britain in Denise and Fernando, the walking boots he’s named after his grown children. Steve Coogan’s comedy creation stalks the hills and towns of Britain in his entertainingly small-minded and large-ego style.
THE RATION BOOK DIET MIKE BROWN, CAROL HARRIS AND CJ JACKSON, THE HISTORY PRESS, £14.99
Not one for the feasting period, but helpful in January’s austerity, this examines nutrition during wartime rationing and is full of classic recipes from the make-doand-mend generation.
WILDFLOWERS OF BRITAIN MONTH BY MONTH MARGARET WILSON MERLIN UNWIN BOOKS, £8.99
A delightful little guide through Britain’s wildflowers by month. Margaret Erskine Wilson’s watercolour illustrations, made over a 45-year period, comprise over 1,000 species and are truly charming. CORM0RANCE NICK HAYES, GRANTA, £18.99 Something slightly different, Nick Hayes’s handsome Cormorance is a graphic novel without words. It tells the moving story of two children, each struggling with loss, who find a haven in a deserted reservoir. This urban wilderness is brought to life in Hayes’s sumptuous illustrations, in a work that has the feel of William Morris.
THE MEANING OF BIRDS SIMON BARNES, HEAD OF ZEUS, £16.99
Why did Fred Astaire call Ginger Rogers ‘Feathers’? When did Charles Darwin become a pigeon fancier? And which birds are the Labradors of falconry? Find the answers in this eclectic and often witty volume that aims to show how birds live their lives and in doing so, how they’ve touched on ours.
THE PENNINE WAY ANDREW MCCLOY, CICERONE, £12.95
The story of Britain’s oldest long-distance footpath, which stretches 268 miles from the Derbyshire Peak District to the Scottish Borders. Walker Andrew McCloy explores its history and current fortunes by talking to the people of the Pennine path while striding its length.
MAKING OF THE BRITISH LANDSCAPE NICHOLAS CRANE WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, £20
A definitive, encyclopaedic read and an evocative paean to the evolution of our scenery by the vastly knowledgeable BBC presenter Nicholas Crane. A revealing glimpse of the Britain that once was and how we made it the place it is today.
WINTER MELISSA HARRISON ELLIOTT AND THOMPSON, £12.99
Harrison selects classic extracts and entries from naturalists and authors in paying tribute to the season. An essay from writer Andrea Levy sits alongside an early 14th-century poem of anonymous origin entitled ‘Wynter wakeneth Al My Care’. The collection of all four seasons is a lovely gift for literary nature lovers.
BRITAIN’S BEST WALKS CHRISTOPHER SOMERVILLE TIMES BOOKS, £30
Avid walker and Times columnist Christopher Somervilles gathers 200 of his favourite routes across the land, with trails to suit all walkers in Pembrokeshire, Cornwall, Shetland, Borrowdale and more.
HIDDEN HISTORIES MARY-ANN OCHOTA, FRANCES LINCOLN
For the dedicated spotter in the family. Identify round mounds and rock art; know your clapper from your packhorse bridge. See our gift guide on page 72.