The Cuckoo's Lea: The Forgotten History of Birds and Place

by Michael J. Warren

Overview

'Magical … No journey in Britain will be quite the same again.' The Guardian

Birds have long inspired our emotional and imaginative connections to physical environments, but where did it all begin?

Hidden in the names of English towns and villages, in copses, fields, lanes and hills, are the ghostly traces of birds conjuring powerful identities for people in ancient landscapes. What are their stories and secrets? How did people encounter birds over a thousand years ago?

In The Cuckoo's Lea, Michael J. Warren sets out on the trail of these ghosts. Captivated and guided by the secrets of place names, he finds their stories entangled with his own explorations of places through birds all across England. The past is hauntingly and movingly present on timeless marshes where curlews cry, where goshawks are breeding again for the first time in centuries, through silent cuckoo-woods lost under concrete sprawl, in the winter roosts of corvids and an owl village that vanished centuries ago.

Weaving together early literature, history and ornithology, this book takes readers on a journey far into the past to contemplate the nature of place and to discover a fascinating heritage that matters deeply to us now when so many places and their birds are threatened or already gone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399412070
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	10/07/2025
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Michael J. Warren is an author, medievalist and naturalist. He teaches English in Chelmsford, was honorary research fellow at Birkbeck College, chair of the steering group for New Networks for Nature, and is currently a trustee for Curlew Action. Michael curates The Birds and Place Project, a website devoted to collecting and recording the birds of English place names.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter one: An Antiquity of Cranes
Chapter two: The Cuckoo's Lea
Chapter three: Pathless Ways
Chapter four: Charterlands
Chapter five: An Owl's Cry
Chapter six: Marsh Dwellers
Chapter seven: The Gull's Home
Chapter eight: Everywhere and Nowhere
Chapter nine: Hawk in the Woods
Chapter ten: Crow Hill

Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Birds in English Place Names: A Glossary
Permissions
Notes
Further Reading and References
Index

Editorial Reviews

“Magical … No journey in Britain will be quite the same again.” —The Guardian

“I loved this beguiling exploration of how birds have long inspired emotional and imaginative human connections to physical places.” —Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller

“Fascinating and meticulously researched.” —The Observer

“A poetic blend of natural history, etymology and memoir.” —Geographical

“Scholarly, fresh, exquisitely crafted and breathtakingly, heart-achingly beautiful, The Cuckoo's Lea weaves the human and natural history of England into a tapestry that will transform your relationship with place. Michael Warren has made a book I'll love forever.” —Amy-Jane Beer, author of The Flow

“One of the most unique works of nature writing in recent years, original in its ambition and successful in its execution. Michael Warren has written an exhilarating exploration of birds and words.” —British Birds

“Utterly beguiling, deeply poignant and revelatory, a cartographic overlay of language and land and our place in nature. A book with a pertinent and radical message from the past – that nature is our house, our dwelling-place and neighbourhood, from where we can chart a new course, with a very old compass.” —Nicola Chester, author of On Gallows Down

“The best statement for the importance of the medieval I've ever read. A wonderful book.” —David Crystal, linguist and author of The Stories of English

“A brilliant blend of birds, places, history and language - all held together with a deft personal touch - and a surprise on every page.” —Stephen Moss, author of Ten Birds That Changed the World

“This is a book filled with calls and cries, booming, twittering, shrieking, singing – a joyful affirmation of life, revealed through quiet observation and reflection. The Cuckoo's Lea reminds us to listen and love the highly distinctive species which have shaped local identities.” —Fiona Stafford, author of Time and Tide

“Magical, enchanting and intriguing. Read in wonder and see Britain made anew with eyes that are both ancient and modern.” —Mary Colwell, author of The Gathering Place

“Simply phenomenal. Michael Warren has a great gift – this wonderful book is making me see landscapes anew.” —Ben Hoare, author of The Wonders of Nature

“A fascinating, haunting book which unveils the rich meaning layered into our places. The Cuckoo's Lea is a rosetta stone for our ecological history.” —Jon Moses, Right to Roam

“Intricate, deeply felt, earthed and airborne, fusing the knowledge of historian and naturalist to reveal the living pasts written in our landscapes as if with invisible ink.” —Alexandra Harris, author of The Rising Down

“A really lovely reflection on the deep history of the British landscape and the connection between the people who've lived in these places and the birds they must have heard and seen.” —Dr Eleanor Parker, author of Winters in the World

From the Publisher