A Shadow Above – The fall and rise of the Raven by Joe Shute

Published by Bloomsbury, hard back 272 pages, price £16.99

Amazing how folk pick up a species and want to write about it without any knowledge of the species! This is not a ‘Derek Ratcliffe’ Raven but someone who has put a lot of time and effort in finding a lot of facts about Raven from historical killing records to the new breeding areas from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Orkney isles. Joe interviews folk [his main job is a journalist] from naturalists in the field to keepers of Ravens. He visits new nesting areas to areas where they are still trying to come back to. He examines historical facts about them from Viking to North West native tribes of America. He meets lots of folk and although may be not all experts of this bird he ends up with an interesting read. Like Peregrines and many other birds of prey some of the gaps in this reestablishment are still due to persecution. Surprise, surprise!!