Customer Reviews:
 Corvid crazy November 12, 2008
As a youngster I used to be a keen ornithologist but, on reaching my teens, birds of the non-feathered variety captured my attention instead.
So, seeing this book in my local Waterstone's (sorry Amazon) I was fascinated and felt compelled to discover how a book of 200+ pages could be written soley about crows. Put simply, the book isn't just about crows (it focuses more on rooks and jackdaws) but is a celebration of the rural countryside of Britain combined with healthy chunks describing the domestic events within the Cocker household. The book is none the worse for that though, it just serves to illustrate the way our hectic everyday lives are inextricably linked to the natural world around us.
Indeed, whilst recently waiting to collect my Son from school I noticed for the first time the multitude of rooks and their ubiquitous Jackdaw companions. They have undoubtedly been present overhead whenever I've waited by the school gates - I'd just never noticed them before. That's the great thing about Mark Cocker's writing - it's served as the catalyst that's re-awakened my interest in the natural beauty surrounding me, beauty that I've overlooked for far too long.
A very atmospheric and evocative book, recommended.
 Poorly written drivel September 15, 2008
3 out of 23 found this review helpful
If you should happen to like writers who tell you what to see, interspersed with soggy metaphors, then this book is for you.
The author hasn't even the most basic knowledge of how to tell a story, trying to create something (moods?) by selecting emotive adjectives to 'enhance' what he tries to describe.
Mark Crocker has obviously never heard about the first rule in creative writing: Show, don't tell.
Unfortunately there was none of Amazon's usual excerpts on this one, because that would have saved me buying this book that I never will be able to read, mostly because of the awkward use of language.
If this is 'Exquisitely written...the work of one of our most gifted and original nature writers' (BBC Wildlife), then nature writing in UK is in a sad decline.
The Crow Road September 13, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Ever since I saw two crows (mother and father I presume) dive-bombing our cats who were near to their young fledgling who was taking his first "flight" from the nest in the tree at the back of our garden, I have been fascinated by their behaviour in particular and by the other crows in the neighbourhood in general. This has proven interesting indeed as the original crows' nest has been used again and again by presumably the same pair, who have raised more babies since the dive bombing incident. Their cawing in the morning has become our dawn chorus and whilst ostensibly a common occurrence, just by paying a bit more interest in these events has increased my enjoyment of our garden.
Now to this book. It is the latest in a recent line of excellent nature based books, which have extolled the hidden beauty of britain and the pleasure to be found in studying the apparently commonplace. This book especially scores because it charts a human journey and joy in an apparently bland landscape and quite frankly just wmakes you want to go out there and see these magnificent birds in action.
This book is shorter than some of it's peers and might have benefitted from some photographs or pictures, but I guess you can get these in any other bird guide so there you go.
a lovely book
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