THE WREN: A BIOGRAPHY
STEPHEN MOSS, SQUARE PEG, £12.99 (HB)
Stephen Moss has written a lively and accessible book about a much-loved little nut-brown ball of feathered energy. Charismatic mega-fauna are supposed to be the animals humans most respond to, emotionally and imaginatively; there have been many more songs sung to tigers than to tardigrades. But the tiny, often skulking, and rather drab wren has a prominence among the birds that challenges these assumptions. Perhaps it is, in fact, the species’ very tininess that has allowed it to loom so large. The wren is also our commonest bird and is found throughout the British Isles.
Stephen Moss’ biography follows a similar book by him on the robin and will ensure the wren keeps a place in our hearts and minds. Their biology is remarkable and Moss tells it well. Their presence in British folklore and the collective historical imagination is equally striking. Moss acknowledges his debt to The Wren, a superb monograph published in 1955 by clergyman-ornithologist Edward A Armstrong, who studied the birds in his garden. There is new material here and nice writing about this most charismatic creature. Tim Dee, author and BBC radio producer