For more than two years, Adam Nicholson has been learning all about the birds in garden at Perch Hill. His new book is all about them, their lives and how their existence intertwines with ours.
In Bird School, Nicholson charts his encounters with birds to reveal a layer of life that he had admitted to have previously almost ignored. He wanted to look and listen, to return to ‘bird school’ and see what it might teach him.
In a forgotten field, at Nicolson’s home in Sussex, he built a small shed amongst the trees with nesting boxes and bird feeders. Cocooned inside, season after season, he got to know the birds: where they nest, how they sing, how they mate and fight, what preys on them, what they are like as living things.
“A feast for mind and soul, a treasure trove of insights into the enigmatic and enchanting world of the birds we share our lives with but barely notice. I have learnt so much. Every page is a thrill. Bird School has opened my eyes” Isabella Tree, author of Wilding
Interwoven through with philosophy, literature, science, Nicholson writes with a sense of wonder, always conscious that that this is an age in which the natural world is under siege. Bird School pulls back the curtain on seemingly ordinary birds, taking a long, careful and concerned look at our relationship with the wild.
Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood (William Collins) will be released on the 10th of April, 2025.
