A wonderful book beautifully told. He packs his pages with fascinating, often hilarious anecdotes and information. A social history which is a surprise and a delight Val Hennessy,Daily Mail Critics Choice

Scholarly, authoritative and above all supremely readable, Stephen Mosss book is the first to trace the fascinating history of how and why people have watched birds for pleasure, from the beginnings with Gilbert White in the eighteenth century through World War Two POWs watching birds from inside their prison camp all the way to todays twitchers with their bleeping pagers, driving hundreds of miles for a rare tick.

Thoroughly researched and well-written Mark Crocker,Guardian

Moss knows his subject intimately and writes about it with just the right mixture of affection and occasional quizzicality Jonathan Bate,Sunday Telegraph

It would be difficult to imagine anyone producing a more comprehensive, thoughtful, intelligent and entertaining examination of how people have watched birds at each point in history. In fact, it is one of the few books which might prove such compulsive reading that even a dedicated twitcher might forego a day in the field to stay at home to finish it Bryan Bland,Birding World

Stephen Moss is a writer and broadcaster who has written the monthly Birdwatch column in the Guardian since 1993. He worked for many years at the world-famous BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, where his award-winning TV series included Birding with Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie Goes Wild and Springwatch. He is also a regular voice on BBC radio. He has authored a number of books for Aurum, including This Birding Life: The Best of the Guardians Birdwatch, A Bird in the Bush: A Social History of Birdwatching, A Sky Full of Starlings: A Diary of the Birding Year and Wild Haresand Hummingbirds. He lives in Somerset with his wife Suzanne and five children.