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

A BBC WILDLIFE BEST BOOK OF 2025

'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 y...