Windhover – cover reveal
Combining a scientist’s curiosity with a naturalist’s awe, Laurence Rose set out to document a year in the life of his local area from a kestrel’s perspective. Lyrical but never romantic, Windhover offers a meditation on the forces that shape landscape, from the microscopic to the cosmic.
My new book Windhover will shortly be available online and at my talks, before launching to bookshops in March. Published by Eye Books, it is a complete portrait of a much-loved species in its environment. Using a story-telling approach to break down the boundaries between the science, history and cultural significance of nature and landscape, it celebrates the commonplace and seeks out the extraordinary in the ordinary – painting a vivid picture of a landscape and its wildlife through the year.
Growing up on the outskirts of London taught me to value what this book is about: the extraordinary nature of ordinary nature. A career in conservation taught me another lesson about ordinary nature: it must never be taken for granted. When I retired I spent a year going back to my old ways, foraying after a deeper knowledge of something ordinary, somewhere ordinary. I could think of no better place than the farmland and woods that surround the small Yorkshire hamlet where I live, and no better guide than the kestrel.
Illustrated with linocut prints by Richard Allen, with a cover design by Ifan Bates.
