The Twelve Birds of Christmas

Naturalist Stephen Moss digs beneath the surface of some of our most popular Christmas carols in an ornithological celebration of the Festive Season. Using the structure of the carol as a jumping off, he explores the palce of twelve fascinating British birds in our, history, culture and landscape.

Some of the birds are obvious, there’s the swan and of course the partridge. Other chapters are loose interpretation of a verse: for drummers drumming he delves into the woodpecker's distinctive ...