In this conservation classic, originally published more than sixty years ago, Fred Bodsworth tells the story of a solitary Eskimo curlew's perilous migration and search for a mate. The lone survivor comes to stand for the entirety of a species on the brink of extinction, and for all in nature that is endangered. This new paperback edition includes a foreword by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet W.S. Merwin and an afterword by Nobel Prize–winning physicist Murray Gell–Mann.

An intimate and evocative account of an era when farmers worked closely with nature and the rhythm of the seasons. In Working with the Curlew, Trevor Robinson tells the story of his life as a shepherd on the moor at Great Whernside in Yorkshire and later as a farmhand near Leominster in Hereford. Trevor celebrates the intricate details of traditional farm life, from the village hop, cheese and bread making and trout-tickling, to muck spreading, lambing and sheep shearing. During one severe Yorkshire winter six hundred sheep were lost, and he had to leave the job he loved; 'the call of the curlew was still over two months away, when it came I was not there to hear it'. His new job in Herefordshire brought different skills: hedge laying, ploughing matches, haymaking, chain harrowing and crop rotation, and inevitably, the arrival of tractor and combine harvester. Before factory farming, smallholdings sustained entire families and there were enough small farms for a shepherd to climb the ladder to ownership. Working with the Curlew beautifully honours those peaceful yet lively times.

‘Focuses a razor light on the plight of one of our most iconic birds. Inspirational!’ Tim Birkhead Curlews are Britain’s largest wading bird, known for their evocative calls which embody wild places; they provoke a range of emotions that many have expressed in poetry, art and music.

‘A must read for all wildlife lovers’ Dominic Dyer Foxes, buzzards, crows, badgers, weasels, seals, kites – Britain and Ireland’s predators are impressive and diverse and they capture our collective imagination. But many consider them to our competition, even our enemies.

The Silver Curlew is one of Eleanor Farjeon's finest works, an intriguing re-telling of the classic story Rumpelstiltskin. Mother Codling lives with her children in a small, Norfolk windmill. One day, the Codlngs receive a surprise visit from the king of Norwich, who insists that eighteen-year-old Doll Codling must spin a certain amount of flax for him, or he will cut off her head. Doll, terrified of dying, makes a deal with a spindle-imp, in order to save herself and her family. The only clincher is, that he returns to the castle when Doll's daughter is born and insists that he take the newborn child as payment for his work. Doll, and her younger sister Poll, try desperately to keep the baby...