In celebration of World Book Day our author Martin Yelland has written a blog about his love of books and some current family favourites!
I love books, and have been brought up around them. During my childhood I was always interested in nature books, in particular books by Willard Price. Price’s books were works of fiction, but involving real creatures and countries. The main characters were a father and his two sons, who would go on nature expeditions. I remember the first book I read by Price, was simply called ‘Lion Adventure’. This involved the crew travelling to Tsavo in Africa and capturing and then relocating man- eating lions. I was hooked!
Fast forward almost thirty (!) years, and I now have two sons! We don’t go trekking lions, but we do go on bird watching mini adventures, and am pleased to say both our boys love the natural world, and enjoy learning and reading about our native fauna. We often draw what birds we have seen, and both boys have been to visit local woodpecker nests, and understand the need to be quiet and respectful of the subject we are watching.
Our current favourite books
‘I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree’ by Fiona Waters has been one of Noah’s (5 years old) favourites for a while now, a beautiful poetry book about UK nature, a poem for every day of the year. It’s a large heavy hard-back book and Noah likes to dip in and out of it depending on his mood. Noah’s all time favourite book though, was a gift from my friend Vishal, who now lives in New Zealand. ‘Wildlife of Aotearoa’ by Gavin Bishop is a stunning nature book, with historical facts and pictures about New Zealand’s wildlife. This book also introduced Noah to New Zealand folklore, kick starting a big interest in myths and legends.
We read a bedtime story every night, and 90 per cent of the time these books involve birds, animals or both. Ruan’s (3 years old) favourites have been ‘Tractor Ted’ ones and ‘Tremendous Tractors‘ part of the Amazing Machines series by Tony Mitton for a long time or anything vehicle based. His interest in birds is definitely increasing, maybe due to visits to the local bird hide where he has seen kingfishers, egrets, cormorants and herons fairly close up. Zoe bought the boys a book from the National Trust shop at Trelissick, ‘Birds of a Feather‘ by Lauren Fairgrieve which contains beautifully illustrated 3D DIY bird gliders/decorations. For the last few days Ruan has been zooming about the house playing with these birds (woodpecker, kingfisher, blue tit, owl, blackbird, pigeon and goldfinch) and making his own hybrids!
We visit our local library regularly, and the boys love receiving books on special occasions (birthdays, Christmas, etc). Our local library is located next to a creek, and we often sit in the little bird hide there, quietly and excitedly flicking through their new books, whilst keeping an eye on the birdlife coming and going.
This evening after his bedtime story, Noah said to me that at school when choosing a library book, he always looks for books with birds and animals in them. We are members of the RSPB, National Trust, the Badger Trust, the Cornish Wildlife Trust and the UK Otter trust, and enjoy the various magazines that we receive.
Zoe’s favourite current book to read with the boys is the ‘2023 Nature Month-By-Month: A Children’s Almanac‘ by Anna Wilson & Elly Jahnz. She doesn’t get as much time to read as she would like these days so the children’s almanac is ideal to dip into as it contains interesting nature facts, but also facts about different cultures and beliefs. This is important for children to learn, so they can begin to understand and respect that some people believe in different things, and that it is okay to do so, even if you may not believe it yourself.
My current favourite books have been, ‘Kingfisher: Tales from the Halcyon River’, by Charlie Hamilton-James. A remarkable story, which documents Charlie’s initial interest in watching kingfishers, to then becoming a master at photographing them.
‘Back Garden Safari’ by Richard Peters was my go to book when I first started camera trapping. This book detailed Richard’s interest in the wildlife in his suburban garden, introducing and explaining some of the camera kit used. Having studied this book intensively, I have now successfully camera trapped kingfishers, sparrowhawks, badgers, foxes, polecats, otters, roe deer and hedgehogs amongst others. The art of camera trapping really gripped me, as you can use wide- angle lenses, and achieve views that you would never normally be able to get. Also of note, I like the fact that camera trapping (when done right), causes no disturbance to the subject, yet allows the photographer some intimate glances into the wild lives of the subjects.
We look forward to celebrating this year’s World Book Day with the boys, Noah has already chosen his favourite book from this year’s selection armed with his book token! We will have an exciting competition to launch so please keep a lookout on our social media pages…
Chough Rock 