Monty Lit Fest favourite Jon Gower is a lifelong birder and, in his new book, he offers us a joyous celebration of Britain’s rich bird life.

From the symphonic song of the wren to the clack of a puffin’s beak and from epic migrations to sunset murmurations, Jon explores our intimate connection with the bird life around us, visiting some of the best places in Britain to watch birds and searching for some species he has always wanted to see.

But all is not well in Birdland, and the book also reminds us of the impact of the climate emergency, the decline in biodiversity and warming oceans on our birds and what we can – and must – do to defend them.

Hear from Jon as he shares his bird’s-eye view of the crucial contribution our feathered friends make both to our lives and to the natural world.

Jon Gower has over forty books to his name, in Welsh and English, including Birdland: A Journey Around Britain on the Wing; Raider: The Raymond Chester Story; The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea, and Y Diwedd, the final volume of his Welsh language crime trilogy. He is also the author of The Story of Wales which accompanied the landmark BBC series, An Island Called Smith which gained the John Morgan Travel Writing Award, and Y Storïwr which won the Wales Book of the Year award.  He is a former BBC Wales arts and media correspondent and was for many years the presenter of Radio Wales’ arts’ programme First Hand.  

Adam Bedford has studied and worked in and around agriculture for the past 20 years. In his day job he develops projects in the gap between farmers and scientists to boost sustainable agriculture. He is the Founder of the Fieldwork Book Club, an online book club for books on food, farming and the natural world. Adam lives rurally near York with his wife and three sons.