Reviews

• A timely, brutally honest, yet inspiring account on what has gone wrong with wildlife conservation, and how we can put it right.
  —Stephen Moss, naturalist and author
• If I were ‘king for a day’, Avery would be instantly installed as the benign dictator of conservation in the UK. If you love wildlife, read this, think about this, and act upon this.
  —Chris Packham, broadcaster and author of Back to Nature
• Mark Avery is uniquely qualified to write this immensely stimulating and thought-provoking book. Reflecting on his lifetime in conservation he discusses the successes and failures of the past, and draws important lessons for more effective conservation in the future.
  —Professor Ian Newton FRS, ornithologist and conservationist
• Reflections is a work of distilled campaigning wisdom, told with the irrepressible optimism of a passionate advocate for nature who’s spent decades working tirelessly for wildlife. With wit, verve and clarity of prose, Mark Avery lays out a strikingly radical set of proposals for how to turn around the decline of wildlife in these isles.
  —Guy Shrubsole, environmental campaigner and author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain and Who Owns England?
• Dr Avery must be congratulated on this important book. He hits the nail on the head. I found myself nodding my head vigorously while reading it. The time for action is now.
  —Baron Randall of Uxbridge, RSPB Council member and peer
• Mark Avery has written a love letter to Nature. Yes it is well written and academically sound and all that you’d expect from a person of his track record, but the real pleasure of the book is that under all that patina of propriety and science you feel a Mr Darcy launching himself into the lake because nothing is more important to him than capturing our hearts with his passion. A real triumph.
  —Sir Tim Smit, Co-founder and Vice Chairman of the Eden Project
• A clarion call for more nature in Britain and how we can get it. Wise, knowledgeable, provocative and good humoured – Mark Avery is a national treasure.
  —Patrick Barkham, author of Wild Green Wonders and co-author of Wild Isles
• A brilliant, thorough book full of insightful observation. A must read for those who care about natures future and wish to understand the character of our contorted relationship with it.
  —Derek Gow, author of Bringing Back the Beaver
• Deeply felt and clear eyed, this book admirably achieves its aim of being ‘realistically hopeful’ about a wildlife renaissance and what it will take for us to get there. You don’t have to agree with all its conclusions. But the questions it intelligently explores, based on a lifetime of experience in conservation, of ‘what sort of world do we want to live in?’ and ‘what should I do about it, then?’ are the essential ones of our times. Read it and be both enlightened and challenged.
  —Beccy Speight, CEO, RSPB
• Mark Avery has been a guiding light in conservation all my life; a constant north star. This important book bears witness to what we’ve lost, what we’ve done about it, what works and what we must do next. It is both a reckoning and a resounding call to real action, at the most crucial time of our lives – of all our wild lives. Here is hope, predicated on action. There is work to do; and we’d better get on with it.
  —Nicola Chester, RSPB Columnist and author of On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging
• If the British conservation movement were a forest, Mark Avery would be one of the ancient oaks... His latest book, Reflections, now pours that experience into a mission statement for all those who claim to prize UK wildlife. From the daisies he mows around on his lawn to the spiders in his bath, Avery’s love of the creeping, crawling, soaring world is evident on every page.
  —India Bourke, New Statesman
• *Book of the Month* If you're interested in the politics of conservation, and what it means in practical terms, then this is for you.
  —John Miles, birdwatching.co.uk
• Reflections is a great book - intimate and expansive, personal and political... it is hard, sometimes, to find a place of agency and grounds for optimism. To his credit, Mark Avery manages both, and much more besides.
  —Karen Jones, Birdwatch
• ...informative, inspiring, and optimistic, something we need right now.
  —Chris Townsend Outdoors
• This is the most insightful and accessible book we have on the current state of wildlife conservation in Britain and what we might do to improve things.
  —Ian Carter, British Wildlife
• This is a good book and anyone interested in wildlife conservation should buy it. I found interesting and thought-provoking comments on every page.
  —-David Norman, British Birds
• … a clear-eyed examination of the state of nature conservation in the UK today. … Read this be inspired that, if we all do our bit, we can indeed save our wildlife.
  —Plant Life
• Mark Avery’s ‘narrative trajectory’ is a well-calculated one that is on target. It is as close as you will get to a common sense manual for putting our damaged wildlife back on track. His book should be recommended reading for those who want to make a positive difference.
  —Barry Grey, IBIS
• I appreciated how the author travels from the micro to the macro, taking in small details and huge dilemmas, always with a sense of passion, keen insight and playful prose. The text is engaging, explanatory, hard-hitting and hopeful! Quite an achievement.
  —Marsh Book Award judging panel