num_pages: 208
description: A Guardian Readers Choice Best Book of 2017Birdsong is woven into our culture our emotions our landscape; it is the soundtrack to our world. We have tried to capture this fleeting ephemeral beauty and the feelings it inspires for millennia. In this fascinating account Richard Smyth asks what it is about birdsong that we so love. Exploring the myriad ways in which it has influenced literature music science and our very ideas of what it means to be British Smyths nuanced investigation shows that what we hear says as much about us our dreams and desires as it does about the birds and their songs. At a time when our birdsong is growing quieter with fewer voices more thinly spread A Sweet Wild Note is a celebration of the complex relationships between birds people and the land; it is also a passionate call to arms lest our trees and hedgerows fall silent.'Exquisite . . . a many textured love song to the bird in all of us  Miriam DarlingtonA lively sense of the absurd a wryly precise prose style and an appropriately magpie-like curiosity for his subject. Theres a wonderful democracy of reference to a book that draws on Radiohead and The Simpsons as well as Messiaen and Duchamp; that considers East End bird-catching alongside the Romantics and current bioacoustics research  Smyth has taught himself to hear and its impossible to read his vivid account and not listen just a little closer yourself  The SpectatorEntertaining and idiosyncratic  witty and engaging. He has a penchant for thinking of curious and apt descriptions  A Sweet Wild Note is often engrossing  and at times really quite enlightening -- Nick Major The NationalA fascinating book beautifully evocative a pleasure to read and as uplifting as listening to a blackbird or robin in full voice. Every page of this book offers endless interesting facts  The York PressThe effortless writing in here makes for easy reading and he keeps your interest in the subject all the way through by mixing together history science and personal anecdotes  well worth reading and it has a stunning cover too  Half Man Half BookIntriguing thoughts on birdsong  Simon Barnes Sunday Times MagazineComic insightful and lyrical  Sam Read BooksellerI would highly recommend it as a thoughtful accessible and witty introduction to the world of birdsong and defy anybody who reads this book not to resolve to pay more attention themselves -- Chris Foster Considering Birds blogFascinating  about the effect of birdsong on our lives and its cultural impact throughout history -- LeedsBigBookend.co.uk[A] gem of a book  I could not put it down  Femke Montagne Waterstones AberystwythSmyths fascinating study is full of expert knowledge and witty observations and will have you listening to the dawn chorus with fresh ears and a glad heart -- The Simple Things MagazineWill make you listen differently  consider this book a bit like the tasting notes on a fine wine  Richard Littledale The Preachers BlogPerfectly paced  bubbles along itself like birdsong; the occasional unexpected wry note adding a layer of wit  Matt Gaw journalist and columnistWell worth a read . . . hits many sweet notes  Mark Avery author of Remarkable Birds and Inglorious: Conflict in the UplandsA delightful meditation on the wonders of nature's best free show  birdsong  and how it has seeped into our culture through the ages  Stephen Moss author of Wild Hares and Hummingbirds and Wild KingdomBetween the fibrillating throats of birds and the human mind lies an extraordinary landscape a place created by the intersection of culture biology and literature. Richard Smyth is a brilliant insightful and witty guide in this fascinating terrain  David George Haskell author of The Songs of Trees and the Pulitzer finalist The Forest Unseen. Professor of Biology University of the SouthThis is a delightful book that does exactly what it says on the cover: it plays a sweet wild note. If you are already tuned in to bird song you will learn a lot more and if you arent you will want to be. Reading it honestly seems to have improved my (ornithological) listening and hearing as well as cheering my heart  Sara Maitland author of Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Our Forests and FairytalesA lovely book ... lovingly written  Georgey Spanswick BBC radioFull of zest and at times deliciously wry this is a well-informed warm and effortlessly endearing call to arms to listen  perhaps for the first time in years  with our ears and more importantly to feel it in our hearts. Smyth is without doubt an exciting new nature-writing talent  Jules Howard zoologist writer and broadcasterA long time since I found myself this engrossed in a book; simply fabulous!  James Common @CommonByNatureFantastic  primed with humour and warmth  [the] beautifully eye catching cover really sparks the imagination of the reader and gives an insight into the wonders that are housed inside  The Quiet KnitterWitty informed readable I am really loving A Sweet Wild Note: so well researched at times funny and at times touching  Nick Acheson @themarshtitEffortless writing  keeps your interest all the way through by mixing together history science and personal anecdotes  well worth reading  Nudge-book.comBeautifully written  entertaining and informative  a great read that will help you appreciate more fully natures beautiful soundtrack - John Muir Trust Journal
language: English
title: A Sweet, Wild Note: What We Hear when the Birds Sing
publisher: Elliott & Thompson