The Robin

A Biography

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A beautifully illustrated celebration of one of Britain’s best-known birds: the familiar, friendly yet fiercely territorial robin – the perfect gift for nature lovers.

With its vivid orange-red breast, dark eyes and delicate song, the robin is among the most instantly recognisable visitors to our gardens. It has enchanted generations of writers and artists, inspired myths and nursery rhymes, and become an enduring emblem of Christmas, despite being one of Britain’s most aggressive small birds.

Trace the robin’s life across a calendar year: from courtship, nest-building and egg-laying to the hatching and fledging of its speckled young, then on through moulting, migration and the defence of its winter territory. Discover its feeding habits, remarkable tameness around humans, year-round song and enduring role in literature and folklore, in this essential addition to any birdwatcher’s bookshelf.

Moss’s prettily illustrated book is full of such curiosities. Gratifyingly, though, it steers clear of becoming a dry deluge of facts, a pitfall of so much ornithological writing… Moss, a nature broadcaster and a lecturer in creative writing, is a good storyteller, seamlessly linking biological fact with the anecdotal… There is no doubt that Moss’s book, with its charming cover and quaint illustrations, will make it into many a stocking this year. Yet, this is far more than a book for Christmas. There is a serious message here. The more we learn about our favourite bird, the more we realise how much we don’t know. This gulf is evidence of how we have become distanced from the natural world… Moss’s charming paean to this bird that lives hard and dies young reminds us that it deserves to be more than a whimsical symbol of festive cheer
Patrick Galbraith, The Times

About Stephen Moss

Stephen Moss is a lifelong naturalist, bestselling author and prolific broadcaster. In a distinguished career at the BBC Natural History Unit his credits included the BAFTA-award-winning Springwatch, Birding with Bill Oddie and The Nature of Britain. His books include The Robin, The Wren, The Swallow, The Swan, The Owl, The Starling and The Puffin. He is the outgoing President of the Somerset Wildlife Trust and a Visting Research Fellow at Bath Spa University. Originally from London, he now lives with his wife and children on the Somerset Levels.

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