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The Seabird’s Cry

The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers

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The Seabird’s Cry

By: Adam Nicolson
Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
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WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2018

WINNER OF THE JEFFERIES AWARD FOR NATURE WRITING 2017

The full story of seabirds from one of the greatest nature writers. The book looks at the pattern of their lives, their habitats, the threats they face and the passions they inspire – beautifully illustrated by Kate Boxer.

Seabirds are master navigators, thriving in the most demanding environment on earth. In this masterly book, drawing on all the most recent research, Adam Nicolson follows them to the coasts and islands of Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and the Americas. Beautifully illustrated by Kate Boxer, The Seabird’s Cry is a celebration of the wonders of the only creatures at home in the air, on land and on the sea. It also carries a warning: the number of seabirds has dropped by two-thirds since 1950. Extinction stalks the ocean and there is a danger that the grand cry of a seabird colony will this century become little but a memory.

 Animals Anthropology Biological Sciences Outdoors & Nature Science Conservation Polar Region
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Critic reviews

‘An exquisitely written paean to ten ocean-going birds … make no mistake, this is a clever book … a call to arms against the loss of this crucial part of our rich natural heritage’, Books of the Year, The Times
‘An extraordinary book, nothing less than a masterpiece’ Financial Times
‘Gorgeous book, a poetic soaring exploration of 10 species of seabirds…Generous and beautifully composed’ Observer
‘No one has previously captured the essence of seabirds, of their habitats or their lives, with such poignancy or perception as Adam Nicolson in this fine book…[He] takes us on an extraordinary, constantly changing journey through the history, literature and biology of their lives…[His] exuberance for seabirds is infectious…inspirational’ BBC Wildlife
‘Nicolson writes with a heart full of poetry and a head full of science. He is up to speed with recent seabird research and tells the tales with relish’ Mail on Sunday
‘Full of fascinating and often gruesome details…[he] succeeds in expressing his sense of awe at these magnificent creatures’ Sunday Times
‘Though seabirds have ridden the surf and skies for 100 million years we are now casually wiping them out…Nicolson has accorded them this book. Its excellence constitutes some small recompense’ Evening Standard
‘It isn’t sufficient to say that Nicolson writes well about birds. He is dizzyingly, dazzlingly good’ Sunday Herald
‘Beautiful and engrossing book…written with verve and weathered with wonder…there is no one I’d rather read writing about these creatures…the bigness of our author’s excitements and passions is…abundant in this clear-sighted yet loving book and it is magnificent to have’ Country Life
'Breathtaking…[Nicolson] has an intuitive understanding of the birds that feels almost uncanny…presents…research in a way that is not just comprehensible but compelling, even moving…His swithering between the forensic and the poetic creates a sense of wonder' Spectator
All stars
Most relevant
The book is well researched and fascinating but the reader is dreadful. He speaks every sentence with the same inflection, starting high and dropping in tone. He seems to place an imaginary comma before the final 2 or 3 words. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just sounds odd, sometimes it changes the meaning. Mostly it's just annoying.

It's a shame because the content is really interesting and the book is well written and deserves better treatment.

Interesting book but terrible narrator

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I thought it was wonderful but sad to know some of our Sea Birds are struggling to find food
Plastic pollution warming seas killing our Sea Birds
Long line Fishing nets DEATH TRAPS

Everyone should Listen to this Book

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I was absolutely taken with this book. I learned so much more about species I regularly see. The research into each bird was very impressive

Fascinating

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well written factual account of massive destruction of sea birds and the oceans . Focussed on a few species, book narrates the different ways sea birds affected by overfishing and sea level warming.

brilliant and alarming

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loved it, especially how the science is done. A little less interested in the tales of cloth brutality

wonderfully written overview of 10 seabird species

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