Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood

An intimate exploration of the lives of birds and their interactions with man, by a preeminent naturalist.

Close to Adam Nicolson’s home in Sussex, there is a forgotten field overrun by bracken and thicketed by brambles. It is the haunt of deer and many birds—nightingales, the occasional cuckoo, ravens, robins, owls, and in summer, the sweet-singing warblers that come north from Africa to breed in English woods.

Wanting to look and listen, to return to “bird school” and see what it might tea...