Behind the Binoculars
Interviews with acclaimed birdwatchers
By (author) Dr. Mark Avery, Keith Betton
Publication date:
20 July 2015Publisher
Pelagic PublishingDimensions:
234x156mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781784270506
How and why did our most acclaimed birdwatchers take up birding? What were their early experiences of nature? How have their professional birding careers developed? What motivates them and drives their passion for wildlife? How many birds have they seen?
Mark Avery and Keith Betton, passionate birdwatchers and conservationists, interview members of the birdwatching community to answer these and many other questions about the lives of famous birdwatchers. They take you behind the scenes, and behind the binoculars, of a diverse range of birding and wildlife personalities.
Behind the Binoculars includes interviews with: Chris Packham, Phil Hollom, Stuart Winter, Lee Evans, Steve Gantlett, Mark Cocker, Ian Wallace, Andy Clements, Mike Clarke, Debbie Pain, Keith Betton, Roger Riddington, Ian Newton, Stephanie Tyler, Mark Avery, Stephen Moss, Alan Davies and Ruth Miller, Rebecca Nason and Robert Gillmor.
Like all the best ideas, it just looks too simple. You get hold of many of the best and best-known birdwatchers in the country, then ask them a broadly similar set of questions and see what happens.
What in fact results is a series of thoroughly entertaining and often very enlightening interviews with some of the names that have made British birding what it is. As with any selection of that sort, you can quibble about inclusions and omissions, but I daresay further volumes might put some of those arguments to bed.
Their inclusion of themselves might raise a few eyebrows, too, but both merit it on their birding and ornithological achievements, and their answers also throw new light on why they’ve asked the questions they have.
Although each interview begins from the same set of questions, Avery and Betton do a great job of following up on each person’s interests, making each piece a highly individual profile, and they also get to the heart of what made each one a birdwatcher – not just the initial spark, but the ongoing passions. I thought I knew a few of the interviewees reasonably well, but I was wrong!
There’s plenty of interesting trivia, too. Which Bird Watching contributor, for example, would pick Zulu as his favourite film? Which one would avoid jazz and blues? It all adds up to a great book for dipping into one interview at a time – enjoy!