The Blackbird Diaries (Saraband 2017)

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Written as a diary over the course of a single year, I observe the wildlife in our garden on the edge of the English Lake District. The book celebrates the life in an ordinary garden where blackbirds, swifts, sparrowhawks and much more allowed me to notice and celebrate the everyday. But there is more. Visiting the Solway Coast, the Hebrides and the Shropshire hills, the book examines the rise and fall of species, revelling in the thousands of barnacle geese and whooper swans that visit our coasts in winter, and pursues the reasons behind the decline of our iconic lowland curlews and the loss of the iconic golden eagle from the Lake Disrtric. The Blackbird Diaries won the Literature Award at the Lake District Book of the Year Awards 2018.

‘Lloyd joyously shares with us Swift TV – the CCTV footage made by her friends of the nesting habits of swifts, and the astonishing sight of swift chicks doing “swift pushups” in their nest, to give them the strength and stamina necessary for that first, terrifying, two-year, maybe three-year maiden flight during which their tiny legs will never touch a solid surface… The Blackbird Diaries is a keenly observed historical log of the political and ecological decisions affecting Cumbria as we slide towards the brave new world of Brexit.’ Katherine Norbury review, ‘Caught by the River.’ Read the full review here.