In Search of One Last Song

by Patrick Galbraith

William Collins 320pp £18.99 The Week Bookshop £14.99

Patrick Galbraith was in a pub toilet when it dawned on him that if he didn’t hear a nightingale, a turtle dove or a capercaillie soon, he “probably never would”, said Jamie Blackett in Country Life. “This type of random epiphany probably occurs to most people, although few of us bother to do anything about it.” Galbraith, however, “is different”. A precociously talented young journalist (he was appointed editor of the Shooting Times aged just 23), Galbraith resolved to find out as much as he could about the decline of birds in Britain – and to seek out some of the most threatened species. Accordingly, he set out on a journey to some of Britain’s “remotest places”, in search of species such as the black grouse, the kittiwake and the corncrake. It’s a journey he triumphantly describes in this “thought-provoking” and “entertaining” book.

Like all the best nature writers, Galbraith combines an ability to write lyrically with a formidable grasp of his subject, said Ethan Croft in The Times. His book is full of “shock statistics”, such as the fact that turtle dove numbers have fallen by 94% in the past three decades. Yet he also makes it clear that centuries of mismanagement are to blame for the current plight of Britain’s birds – going all the way back to the 1630s, when Charles I’s draining of the East Anglian fens spelled “doom for the long-beaked bittern”. As well as being a superb ornithologist, Galbraith is also an accomplished people-watcher, said Roger Cox in The Scotsman. He records many encounters with colourfully eccentric conservationists – such as a “clubbing and birding enthusiast” who enjoys watching lapwings while high on acid. This book is a “hugely impressive achievement, and it will be fascinating to see where Galbraith goes from here”.