Product Description

With no prior knowledge of birds, the author is seized with an unexplained longing to track the peregrine falcons that hunt in the river valley behind his home each winter. Though his subjects are far more elusive than the pigeons and gulls on which they prey, on rare occasions he sees a peregrine roosting or bathing, or spots a fresh kill in the grass. He outlines their strict hunting ethos: take other birds only in flight, and spare only the leg and back meat for scavengers. As winter approaches, he resolves to shun the world of men in fierce pursuit of the falcon's inner life. As the landscape thaws, Baker shares the hawk's absolute terror in the face of the stumbling, erratic human beings encroaching on its territory. Veering swiftly from the mundane to the miraculous, Baker's self-effacing diary of a long winter in the wild is a triumph of pure and immediate description.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66192 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-31
• Released on: 2004-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781590171332
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
'The Peregrine should be known as one of the finest works on nature ever written' BBC Wildlife 'A tour de force ! what can I do except praise writing which involves all the senses? This book goes altogether outside the bird-book into literature.' The Sunday Times 'A rapt and remarkable book ! his phrases have a magnesium-flare intensity.' Observer

Review
"Remarkable...the lyrical prose hammers home the attraction of pitting predator against quarry." --Daily Telegraph (London)

About the Author
JOHN ALEC BAKER is also the author of The Hill of Summer. He was a native of Essex, England.

Customer Reviews

...red in tooth and claw
This is nature, hard core. The line between Baker and his prey disappears during the year he spends with these birds. Magnificent, heart-stopping, sense-exploding writing. I read it slowly because it made me more observant of everything I miss when I rush. Makes you a better creature on the earth for reading it.