num_pages: 312
description: Soon after his arrival at Warburg PoW camp British army officer John Buxton found an unexpected means of escape from the horrors of internment. Passing his days covertly watching birds he was unaware that he too was being watched. Peter Conder also a passionate ornithologist had noticed Buxton gazing skywards. He approached him and with two other prisoners they founded a secret birdwatching society.This is the untold story of an obsessive quest behind barbed wire. Through their shared love of birds the four PoWs overcame hunger hardship fear and stultifying boredom. Their quest would draw in not only their fellow prisoners but also some of the German guards at great risk to them all.Derek Niemann draws on original diaries letters and drawings to show how Conder Barrett Waterston and Buxton were forged by their wartime experience into the giants of postwar wildlife conservation. Their legacy lives on.
language: English
title: Birds in a Cage
publisher: Short Books