author interview – Hoopoe

Author Q&A: Clive Slater, Peter Mundy, and Ray Williams – John Henry Gurney: a passion for birds

Many books have been written about notable names in the world of natural history, with the likes of Darwin and Wallace being the first that come to mind. Digging a little deeper in areas such as ornithology will uncover names that aren’t as well known and yet still made significant contributions to the field. Uncovering almost 30 species of birds that were previously unknown to science, John Henry Gurney was a founding member of the British Ornithologists’ Union in 1859, while focusing on the identification of birds of prey. Large collections of letters written by Gurney to Alfred Newton are held by Norfolk County Council in the Norfolk Archive Centre, and others to his family members are in the Library of the Society of Friends in Euston, London. Now a deeply researched biography about the man, his personal life and his contributions to cataloguing nature is being published by John Beaufoy Publishing.

NHBS managed to bring the co-authors together to answer a few questions about the book and uncovering the history of a man seemingly forgotten by the world of ornithology.

How did you first come across John Henry Gurney, and why did you decide to write this biography?

As co-authors of this biography, we (Clive Slater, Peter Mundy and Ray Williams) have combined our three quite different perspectives of John Henry Gurney. Almost 50 years ago, Ray commenced research on a bio-bibliography of the Victorian publisher John Van Voorst (1804-1898) and has published many accounts of the books that Van Voorst produced. One of them, in 2008, concerned Gurney’s Descriptive Catalogue of the Raptorial Birds in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum – Part I. Discovering that Gurney was occupied from 1857 to 1864 in producing Part I but that he never completed the project prompted the obvious question of “why?” Further investigations revealed his misfortunes of the 1860s, including his wife’s elopement, an inevitable divorce, and his entanglement in the notorious financial crash of Overend & Gurney for which the directors were tried for fraud (but acquitted).

When Peter was studying vulture specimens in the bird collection at the Natural History Museum at Tring for his PhD, he noticed some with Norwich Castle Museum labels. Then, much later, having bought a copy of Gurney’s 1884 account of raptors in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum, he realised what a huge collection it must have once been. He asked Clive, his ornithologist friend from university days in the 1960s and now a Norwich resident, to investigate. Apparently, none of the original specimens were present, which sparked their quest to discover more about Gurney and the fate of his remarkable collection. Since so little of his work seemed to have been remembered, Peter and Clive decided that it deserved wider recognition and so set about writing a biography. Since Ray’s 2008 paper on Gurney’s Descriptive Catalogue of the Raptorial Birds had come to Clive’s attention, contact was made, and thus came about our decision to join forces, Clive and Peter contributing as ornithologists, and Ray as a historian and bibliographer.

For those unfamiliar with Gurney, could you briefly tell us a bit about him and his work?

Gurney was born in 1819 and raised among the famous Norfolk family of wealthy Quaker bankers, also well known as philanthropists or promulgators of the Quaker faith, not only in Britain, but also in America. After education at a Quaker school, he entered the family bank in Norwich. He had started collecting bird specimens from an early age and this interest developed into journal publications. From 1853, he made collecting and writing about raptors his speciality. Simultaneously, he was receiving and publishing on bird specimens supplied by collectors in southern Africa. These two threads dominated his life’s ornithological work. However, John Henry fell for a cousin, Mary Jary Gurney who was an Anglican, and he was therefore, upon his marriage to her, disowned by his co-religionists, as was the current Quaker convention.

Nevertheless, he did not abandon the principles of his upbringing and was assiduous in his commitments to his banking career, his public service as an MP and JP and his philanthropy. Though his additional personal ornithological research resulted in a constant and considerable workload, what is truly astonishing is his determination and strength of mind in continuing his bird work throughout a series of tragic misfortunes during the 1860s. His research procedures were constant throughout his life, meticulously documenting external morphology of as many specimens as possible, while accurately recording geographical distributions. He was not a theorist, however, and dealt only in facts as he recorded them. Although best known for his studies of the world’s birds of prey, Gurney’s wide zoological interests also embraced the birds, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and marine invertebrates of his home county of Norfolk, which he supplemented with fascinating accounts of historical manuscripts.

What were the greatest challenges you faced when writing this biography?

The research itself was, of course, naturally difficult and time consuming, involving numerous visits to libraries, archives and museums by all of us. The access to archival material in private and public collections of books and specimens in the UK and southern Africa was challenging and required much logistic planning. Covid lockdowns hampered access to libraries and museum collections. On several occasions when reviewing progress, we found that the vast amount of information gleaned had to be severely edited in order to keep below the agreed word limit.

A significant challenge, therefore, was not any difficulty in finding enough information, but was how to select the most important facts and to present them in the most succinct fashion. Moreover, information had to be continually assessed and corroborated, which additionally involved the interpretation and explanation of events, extending in the end to nine years since we decided in 2016 to combine resources. However, the major issue was Peter’s deteriorating health, leading to his death in February 2023. Nevertheless, his determination to continue contributing to our work despite his serious illness was inspirational and we vowed to finish the book as a testament to his courage (the book is also dedicated to him).

This book covers the intriguing twists and turns of Gurney’s life in impressive detail. Were there any discoveries that surprised you when researching this book?

Much taxonomic information was encountered, though that is practically certain to arise in any biography of a Victorian naturalist. It is significant, however, how deeply respected he was in the ornithological circles of his day – many others across the world would often seek his help and advice in their studies. But perhaps the most surprising revelations concern Gurney’s private life and how he miraculously managed to continue his ornithological research in the face of so much adversity and personal tragedy, all of which became intertwined with other misfortunes of his wider Norfolk family. These discoveries provided the answers that Ray sought to explain the slow progress of the Descriptive Catalogue of the Raptorial Birds and the failure to complete it. Whilst the Overend & Gurney affair has been known about for some years, we were able to add some more detail. Most startling of all was the story of Gurney’s wife’s elopement and its tragic impact not only on his own life, but his whole family, and British and American Quakers in general.

The American newspaper press was gleeful in their cruel and unjustifiable use of the unfortunate event for their own political purposes. Gurney must have been deeply embarrassed by the public exposure of these events, hence his self-exile from Norfolk for five years. However, the care he bestowed on his sickly younger son was exemplary and his ability to continue his bird studies whilst living out of a suitcase for years was quite extraordinary. Equally impressive was his memory of details of his specimens at that time, even when he could not access them. He apparently never saw his recalcitrant wife again, but as it happened, she possessed huge financial resources of her own and thus Mary Jary and her lover were ultimately able, after their marriage, to re-establish themselves in society with very little trouble. However, their family also was to be visited again by tragedy when Mary died of cancer, aged 43, and their daughter died of a brain disease, aged 31.

I was surprised to learn that although Gurney donated 1,300 foreign bird specimens to the Lynn Museum, sadly, none of them remain. What specimens would you have been most interested in seeing?

Of course, all the specimens were valuable historically but most exciting would have been a view of the collection from Alfred Russel Wallace’s travels in the Malay Archipelago, as these would have been special and we do not even know what they were! Also intriguing would have been sight of the central displays of birds of paradise and hummingbirds that must have been striking but we have no idea what they looked like.

There are currently seven recognised bird species named in Gurney’s honour. Do you have a personal favourite?

Yes, a great favourite of Clive’s is Gurney’s Eagle, Aquila gurneyi 1860. More than 160 years after George Robert Gray honoured Gurney with its name we still know very little about the biology of this species – nobody has reported even finding a nest! An attempt to see it in Halmahera in 2017 was frustrating for the only fleeting, distant views. For such a large, imposing eagle to be so elusive and little known is quite remarkable.

Despite his vast contributions, including describing 29 birds, 21 of which are still recognised today, John Henry Gurney seems to be somewhat forgotten by modern ornithology. Why do you think this is?

Since Victorian times, momentous scientific advances have been made and the world’s environment is rapidly changing beyond all recognition. In the biosciences, there has been for a century or more an increasing trend for research to become focused on ecology, biodiversity, migration, physiology, biochemistry, genetics and climatology, all of which are now crucial for understanding and combatting the threats of global warming and habitat destruction. Whilst taxonomy must underpin these trends, so that biologists are able to confidently identify whole organisms of animals and plants of importance, the emphasis on taxonomy per se has shifted from the Victorian obsession with finding and naming new species for its own sake. Thus, Gurney is only one of many hundreds of naturalists of his period now unknown to modern biologists in general.

Even Peter, a modern authority on raptors and southern African birds, was baffled as to why for so long he knew little about Gurney, who published nothing about himself and only one very small booklet aimed at the public to serve as a guide to his raptorial collection. Difficult to trace were his letters and other manuscripts, widely scattered among collections in the Natural History Museum in Tring, the Castle Museum in Norwich, the Barclays Group Archives in Manchester, and the Society of Friends’ Library in London. Perhaps if his planned book of raptor paintings by Joseph Wolf had come to fruition he would have become better known. But it seems strange that most world birders and conservationists are so familiar with his name via the beautiful but near-extinct Gurney’s Pitta.

How would you describe Gurney’s impact on ornithology?

Gurney helped lay the foundations of modern ornithology in Victorian times by supporting the fledgling British Ornithologists’ Union and their journal, Ibis, in which he published his papers on raptors and southern African birds, embellished by Joseph Wolf’s illustrations. By his descriptions of new raptorial species and records of worldwide geographical distribution of many species he contributed crucial information to the difficult study of raptors, still a perplexing group. We should also recognise the lasting value of his specimens to modern scholars and the support that he provided to other ornithologists in his day.

What are you working on next? Do you have any more writing projects lined up?

Clive continues researching the history of the bird collections that were once held at Norwich Castle Museum but were dispersed in the 1950s, at the same time as Gurney’s raptorial collection. Thousands of bird specimens were sold, loaned or given to other institutions. Some of them emanated from important expeditions and notable naturalists, so why were these collections at Norwich in the first place, what went where, and why?

Now that Ray’s work on Gurney is finished, he is returning to his project of the bio-bibliography of John Van Voorst, and after that, a similar study is envisaged of the life of Thomas Alan Stephenson (1898-1961), a sea-anemone taxonomist and expert on marine intertidal zonation, as well as a superb botanical and zoological artist whose beautifully accurate paintings give the impression of being colour photographs.

John Henry Gurney – A Passion for Birds is published by John Beaufoy Publishing in association with the British Ornithologists’ Club, and is available in hardback from NHBS here.

Author interview with Joanna Wilbraham: Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts of the World

Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts of the World makes sense of this highly diverse group of miniature plants, differentiating between the three lineages and delving into their evolution, anatomy, and life cycles. The result is an unprecedented in-depth look at these exquisitely beautiful and often overlooked organisms.

Joanna Wilbraham is an active member of the British Bryological Society and Principal Curator at the Natural History Museum, London, where she leads the curatorial team responsible for the collections of algae, bryophytes, and lichens. At just over two million specimens, this is one of the most significant research collections of its kind in the world.

We recently spoke to Joanna about Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts of the World, where she told us how she decided which species to include, threats facing these groups and what projects are on her horizon.

Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and how you came to write this book?

I first became interested in bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) as an undergraduate student. I was keen to do my final research project in botany after an inspiring field trip to the Austrian Alps and was presented with two botanical options: an agricultural research experiment on wheat plants or a project working with bryophytes. Neither option sounded very appealing at the time, but I opted for the bryophytes and have never looked back. Almost immediately I noticed a tiny world I hadn’t previously paid any attention to. I was amazed to discover there was an actual club devoted to the study of these plants! I swiftly joined the British Bryological Society which led to many field excursions getting out and about with experts – undoubtedly the best way to get to get to know bryophytes and learn how to identify them.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with my favourite plant groups professionally over the course of my career. As a curator at the Natural History Museum, London, I specialised in cryptogamic botany, that’s those plants and plant-like groups that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. I focused on seaweeds and freshwater algae for many years though bryophytes have always stayed on my agenda. I am currently Curator of Mosses at the Museum, and I have the privilege of curating one of the largest and most significant collections of preserved moss specimens in the world.

When I was invited to write a book in Princeton’s ‘A Guide to Every Family’ series I saw an opportunity to bring the wonderful world of bryophytes to a wider audience and also a chance for me to spend time delving into some fascinating research along the way.

How did you decide which species to include in Mosses, Liverworts & Hornworts of the World?

The premise of books in this series is to provide a complete overview of a group at some appropriate taxonomic level. Classifications are constantly in flux as new research reveals more about the natural world but, at the time of writing the book, bryophytes were classified into 73 accepted taxonomic orders and this looked like a good starting point to base the narrative around. Some of these orders represent huge diverse groupings. For example, the Hypnales are an immense group of creeping mosses with over 4,000 genera, so I squeezed in a few example genus profiles here to showcase their diversity. In contrast, some other orders are only represented by one known extant genus, so for those the decision of what genera to include made itself. Some bryophytes are so charismatic that I simply had to include them, such as Dawsonia, the world’s largest free-standing moss. I did give in to some personal biases to include some of my favourite plants like the beautiful Myurium in the Hypnales. However, all the taxonomic entries had to pull their weight by contributing to the broader narrative of the book, such as revealing something about their evolutionary past, their adaptations to a world in miniature or how they are responding to a rapidly changing planet. Within these parameters, I chose 100 genera to illustrate the structural and evolutionary diversity of bryophytes from around the world.

Can you tell us about the most interesting species that you’ve learned about while researching your book? ?

There are many fascinating species I knew from the outset had to have their stories included. We meet a moss that glows in the dark; mosses that grow on dung and decaying corpses; a moss that could allegedly survive on Mars and a moss that saved the life of a Victorian explorer in western Africa. The structure of the book also forced me to peer around obscure taxonomic corners and investigate species which I hadn’t come across before. I got to know some new plants like the large charismatic tropical moss Sorapilla. This genus is so rare it was only known from a handful of historic herbarium specimens until a student on a botanical fieldtrip in the Queensland rainforest discovered a new population in 2015! It was also fun to discover more stories about people’s interactions with bryophytes. I needed to research the liverwort genus Solenostoma and in particular the species S. vulcanicola which has a remarkable capacity to thrive in acidic hot springs where is forms extensive, lime-green cushions. Known locally in Japan as the ‘Chatsubomi moss’, specialist tours are available to visit this plant on the Chatsubomi tour bus and now I really want to go to Japan!

Given our rapidly changing climate, what are the largest threats facing these groups, and how can we safeguard them going forward?

We are witness to increasing threats to the survival of bryophytes in their natural habitats around the world. Recent studies have reported that around 20% of European bryophyte species are threatened with extinction. These worrying declines result from the combined consequences of climate breakdown and habitat destruction.

The most immediate threat to bryophytes is the destruction and degradation of their natural habitats. Sphagnum mosses, which form peatlands, play an essential role in our planet’s biochemical cycles, sequestering huge quantities of carbon. The extensive peatlands of the boreal north store twice as much carbon as tropical forests. Alarmingly, increasing temperatures are threatening the existence of these peatland bogs as they risk drying out in warmer conditions. It is more imperative than ever that we protect these peat forming Sphagnum bogs and the wealth of biodiversity that they support. Sphagnum bogs should be treasured and certainly not destroyed for peat extraction to support the horticultural industry. Please make sure to buy peat-free at the garden centre and help save Sphagnum bogs by taking away the demand for these products.

Climate breakdown is having a huge impact on bryophytes. The story that resonated the most for me when I researched the book was that of the rare and enigmatic moss Takakia. This genus represents an ancient lineage and evidence suggests that Takakia plants have existed in the form we are familiar with today for at least 165 million years. Populations of Takakia on the Tibetan Plateau actually predate the uprising of the Himalayas! At a cellular level, these plants have had to adapt at phenomenal rates to protect themselves from the extreme increases in UV radiation and freezing conditions that one finds oneself exposed to when lifted up atop the world’s highest mountain range. However, Takakia faces its greatest challenge yet as the planet is now warming at such an unprecedented rate that even Takakia cannot adapt fast enough and the Tibetan populations are recorded to be steadily declining. Ultimately, the planet’s rapidly changing climate and our global ability to reduce carbon emissions going forward is the driving factor that will determine the fate of many bryophytes.

What’s next for you? Are you working on any other projects that we can hear about?

At the Natural History Museum, I’m responsible for curating and managing the moss herbarium which, with over 700,000 specimens, is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world. Herbaria are taxonomically arranged libraries of preserved plant specimens that provide spatial and temporal distribution data for species. New uses for these collections are constantly coming to light, so it’s a really exciting time for us in the curatorial team and we are busy working on some major projects to make these collections and their associated data more accessible for researchers around the world. I am particularly interested in how we can better leverage our bryophyte herbarium data to support biodiversity and conservation research that can lead to a positive impact for bryophytes in the wild.

The good thing about studying bryophytes is you don’t necessarily need to travel far and wide to find some beautiful species and contribute useful insights on their distribution or biology! I’m looking forward to getting back into some local recording when the hoped for autumn rains revitalise the poor drought frazzled bryophytes of South London. With a magnifying glass to hand there can always be something new to discover.

Author Q&A: Peter Fretwell and Lisa Fretwell – The Penguin book of Penguins

A Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, Dr. Peter Fretwell, like the subjects of his new book entitled The Penguin book of Penguins, spends the majority of his time in the cold. As a senior geographic and remote sensing scientist, Peter has been responsible for leading many projects that further our understanding of the Polar regions and the wildlife that inhabits the area. Establishing and contributing to key projects to help better understand predators in the polar region by using satellite imagery has assisted in crucial conservation efforts.

For this book, Peter has joined forces with his wife Lisa who provides a unique selection of illustrations throughout the book. As an artist of over 30 years, Lisa draws on a wealth of experience having exhibited her works in London and New York.

Peter and Lisa Fretwell. Courtesy of the authors

We were lucky enough to catch up with Peter and Lisa recently to talk about the new publication.

What inspired you to write “The Penguin Book of Penguins”? Why penguins?

Peter: Strangely, there has never been a book titled The Penguin Book of Penguins, so when we were asked to write it, it was an opportunity we couldn’t turn down. I had previously written the Antarctic Atlas, published by Penguin Random House in 2020 and I have worked with penguins and on penguin science for twenty years. These small charismatic creatures are such a delight to be involved with, and they are a major part of working in Antarctica. Working at the British Antarctic Survey you pick up stories and anecdotes about them almost by osmosis, so having a chance to relay those narratives to a wider audience is a real privilege. We all love the jovial nature of these unique birds and their amazing adaptations to survive and thrive in some of the most challenging environments on Earth, but there is a more serious message that I also wanted to convey about the challenges that many of the species now face with climate change, pollution, habitat loss and overfishing. Communicating these challenges to a wider audience is one of our main drivers, whilst keeping the message light and not too “preachy”, to engage and inspire that wider readership. What was more, we decided we wanted to include drawings rather than photos, so my wife, Lisa, who is a professional artist joined the author team to bring the illustrations to life.

How has your work as a cartographer and scientist at the British Antarctic Survey influenced your writing and perspective on penguins?

Peter: I really started researching penguins through my work on mapping and remote sensing. I started my scientific career as a geographer and got a job in the British Antarctic Survey as a cartographer. I have always loved maps, especially mapping the natural world around us, but I also loved the science and was soon not just making maps but helping with the geospatial analysis. The British Antarctic Survey is a wonderful and diverse place for environmental science and to help the scientist analyse their data was fascinating – you never knew what you might be working on; one day it could be mapping and analysing volcanoes, and the next it might be cuttlefish distribution. In 2008, whilst making a map for our pilots, I discovered that we could see emperor penguin colonies in freely available Landsat satellite imagery. At the time, we didn’t know how many emperor penguin colonies there were or their distribution, so it was a groundbreaking discovery.

Peter Fretwell nose to nose with a wild Emperor Penguin.

How has the use of satellite imagery revolutionised the study and conservation of penguin colonies?

Peter: Fast-forward 17 years and we now know that there over double the number of colonies that we thought there were. We track their locations each year and do annual population assessments using satellite imagery. We have also used the technology to discover unique, previously unknown behaviours and traits, and we have witnessed and recorded the struggles and calamities they suffer as the continent warms and the sea ice diminishes. The Earth observation methods that we developed for emperors have been transferred to many other species of penguins and other types of wildlife around the world. My job itself has changed dramatically, from a scientific cartographer to a remote sensing expert and an expert on penguins and other polar vertebrate species that we track from space.

What were the major obstacles or challenges you’ve come across during your study of penguins?

Peter: Using satellites is a brilliant way to study these animals as most of the colonies are in extremely remote locations, where on-the-ground research is almost impossible. Even now the resolution of the most powerful satellites is still not good enough to see every individual adult and chick. We still need to get out there to calibrate our satellite counts and see how accurate they really are, but getting to emperor penguin colonies and synchronising ground (usually a unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV) counts with satellite data is really challenging, not just for emperor penguins, but for all the wildlife that we study from space. One of our current technical challenges is to improve the methods.

Lisa: Finding the inspiration and imagery for the more temperate penguins was quite challenging. The Antarctic and sub-Antarctic penguins were easier, as Peter had taken hundreds of photos of all the species throughout his career that I could work from. We had also visited New Zealand and seen many of the penguin species, like the adorable little blue penguin, there. On his travels, Peter had also photographed penguins on the Falklands and South America, but there were still some species that we had to trawl through published sources to get good reference images for. You have to be careful as what you see on the internet is not always correct, but it helps when you are married to a penguin expert!

Adélie penguin leaping out of the water. Lisa Fretwell

Many people feel rather enamoured by penguins. Why do you think that is?

Peter: I agree, and it’s hard to put your finger on the reason. Maybe it is a combination of their comic trusting nature and the fact that they are one of the few animals that stand upright on two legs, which makes them look a bit like us. It is really hard not to anthropomorphize penguins and compare them to little people with similar habits and social structures. Like us they often live in huge congregations, sometimes hundreds of thousands strong, they have complex courtship routines, bicker with their neighbours and do daily commutes to look after the family. They are also very tame, curious and often clumsy, which makes them quite endearing. Add their incredible, unique abilities in response to their challenging environments and you have an animal that really is quite engaging.

What are the biggest misconceptions about penguins that you would like to clarify?

Peter: There are many. Firstly, and perhaps obviously, penguins are a bird. They have feathers, not fur. Secondly, not all penguins live in Antarctica. A minority, only four of the eighteen species, breed around the coasts of the Southern Continent, but it’s fair to say that almost all (except for a few hundred) live in the Southern Hemisphere and most of them would call the waters around the Southern Ocean home.

What are the primary threats to penguin habitats, and how can these be mitigated?

Peter: It’s not just their habitats, but we can start there. Over the years, penguins have been eaten, killed for their feathers, had their eggs collected in their millions, been squashed and boiled down for their oil, and had their nesting habitats dug up and destroyed for fertiliser. In more recent times, urbanisation and land clearance has affected some of the more temperate birds, and the introduction of non-native species has had a devastating impact on many of the island-living species that are endemic to just one small group of islands.

Today, the main threats to the temperate species of penguins that live close to humanity are pollution from oil spills, overfishing and bycatch in their foraging grounds. But even in Antarctica and the remote island homes of penguins that no one ever visits, the influence of humans is affecting populations. Climate change is a global, man-made phenomenon that cannot be averted at a regional scale and is starting to have dramatic effect on many species. Although it is fair to say that in a warming environment, there will be winners and losers, at the moment, it looks like we will see more losers than winners.

BAS scientist Peter Fretwell in the field. Snow Hill, Antarctica.

What conservation efforts have been most effective in protecting penguin populations?

Peter: Around the world there are many amazing people and organisations helping penguins, from re-homing little penguins in New Zealand and Australia to the fantastic efforts to save African penguins from oil spills. In South America, there has been a great effort to protect breeding colonies from predation and on many sub-Antarctic islands there have been great programmes to eradicate non-native species that eat eggs and chicks, and trample breeding sites. There are fantastic efforts in many places that are saving penguins from the brink of extinction that anyone who loves or admires these birds should be grateful for.

Personally, what thoughts and feelings were you left with after this study of penguins?

Peter: Writing the book has not only highlighted how much we love penguins and how our culture has embraced these charismatic birds, but also the paradox of how badly we have treated them over the years and how threatened they are from human activity. Today most of those threats are indirect, but they are still caused by us and can still be solved by us.

Lisa: In terms of illustrations, I had to re-draw the ‘Penguin Digestor’ numerous times, because it made me feel a bit queasy just thinking about it. If you look at the original image it is very expressive and full of angst! I left those images of how we had mistreated penguins, like the Digestor and the Egg Collector until the very end when I could summon up the will to re-engage with them.

Emperor Penguin with chick. Lisa Fretwell

How do you envision the future for penguins?

Peter: For many species, it is a worrying time. Several are on the brink of extinction; some, like the emperor and chinstrap, are on a worrying trajectory caused by climate change that can only be solved at a global level. But there is hope. So far, we have not made any species of penguin extinct and there is still time to save all of the wonderful types of these birds, but the window for doing that is growing narrower every year.

What are the most important impressions you would like the reader to be left with after reading “The Penguin Book of Penguins”?

Peter: We hope readers will come to understand how wonderful and loveable these birds are and how invested into our culture they have become. When we think about the future of penguins, it can be a little depressing, but we are not there yet and that future is not yet written. If people care about a subject, then maybe they have it within their power to alter the future so that the worst predictions never come to light. If this book does anything, we hope it will enthuse people to help save penguins.

Lisa: I also hope that my illustrations enhance and portray these amazing birds in a true light. I tried to capture their personalities, particularly their behaviour, which I think is absolutely fascinating! The infographics should enable the reader to differentiate between each species, which for some penguin families, especially the banded penguins, is very subtle. I wanted to portray how endearing and intelligent these birds are. They have evolved to survive against the odds and their quirky nature is often fundamental to whether they breed successfully, survive extreme weather conditions and ultimately sustain their populations, and I wanted to reveal these quirks visually to enhance the reader’s experience.

What future research or projects are you planning on currently?

Lisa: I am planning to enhance my penguin illustrations with colour and exhibit them at a number of galleries. I have already been asked to create some other wildlife illustrations for the Arts Society Youth Fund locally, and I hope to illustrate or even write more books in the future.

Peter: I am currently leading multiple projects on penguins and other polar wildlife. My penguin-themed projects include mapping and monitoring seabirds on South Georgia, recording and improving the methods, carrying out population surveys of emperor penguins, and counting chinstrap and Macaroni penguins on the remote South Sandwich Islands. Results from all these studies should be coming out over the next year.

The Penguin Book of Penguins is available as a limited edition signed hardback book, while stocks last, from NHBS here.

Author interview with Trevor Dines on Urban Plants

The 15^th volume in the insightful British Wildlife Collection is this timely and illuminating journey into the wild lives of Urban Plants. In this book, Trevor Dines explores the floral species that pioneer our pavements and walls, break ground in our towns and cities and strive to connect corridors for pollinating invertebrates through our built-up landscapes. Trevor also looks to the future and the potential impacts of invasive species, herbicides and climate change, as well as the concept of urban rewilding.

Trevor Dines, a farmer’s son from Hampshire, co-authored the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, mapping every native and naturalised plant in these islands. A campaigner for better management of road verges and lawns and the creation of wildflower meadows, he appears regularly on the Radio 4 Today programme, BBC Breakfast and Countryfile. Trevor also presented Channel 4’s Wild Things and wrote the accompanying book The Wild Things: Guide to the Changing Plant Life of the British Isles.

We recently had the pleasure of asking Trevor more about why and how he came to write Urban Plants

Firstly, can you tell us a little about yourself and how you came to write the 15th volume in the renowned British Wildlife Collection?

I was incredibly lucky to grow up on two farms -one in Wiltshire and another in Hampshire -where I developed a deep passion for wild plants. I’d spend hours searching dad’s fields for rare arable flowers like Venus’s-looking-glass and Rough Poppy, as well as orchids on the chalk downland. After leaving Bangor University with a PhD in plant architecture, I worked for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, co-authoring the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora (2002). This is when I really got to know our flora, travelling the length and breadth of the country meeting plants and the network of incredibly talented plant recorders that are so happy to share their knowledge. For 20 years I then worked for Plantlife – the plant conservation charity – in particular championing the creation of wildflower meadows, the better management of road verges, and changing attitudes towards lawns through the invention of No Mow May.

During this time, I also presented a Channel 4 TV series (Wild Things) that showed how and why plants are changing their distributions around Britain and Ireland. This led to more work in the communications side of things at Plantlife, something I’ve always had a passion for because it’s such an important element of conservation. This was an exciting time, with appearances on BBC Countryfile, BBC Breakfast and Gardeners’ World, as well as many local radio and newspaper interviews and writing articles for magazines. Katy Roper, Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury Wildlife, became aware of my work through an item I’d written about the spread of Oxford Ragwort and invited me to consider writing a book on urban plants for the series. I was, of course, thrilled at the prospect, and threw myself into the project in 2022 when I became a freelance botanist.

Flowers in a Conwy street by Trevor Dines

My favourite excerpt from the book was hearing about the newly established population of Lesser Tongue-orchids thriving on the roof of a large city bank. Do you have a favourite, but possibly less well-known, urban botanical enclave you can share with us?

I particularly enjoy finding mundane or even rather grotty places with completely unexpected plants. Between a footbridge and the railway into my local town, Conwy, for example, there’s a thin sliver of fallow waste ground that’s home to a very bizarre mix of plants. Alongside the usual suspects like Buddleja and Oxford Ragwort, bright pink Pyramidal Orchid and Zigzag Clover push up between clumps of Pampas Grass, an increasingly invasive garden escape from South America. And, for the last few years, Iris reticulata × histrioides ‘George’ has also flowered here, the only place in Britain where it’s known to be established outside gardens. Tantalisingly, all these plants are unreachable behind a metal fence, adding another level of challenge for the urban botanist.

There has been a sad decline in the number of higher education courses offering botany as an option. However, with the news of the natural history GCSE coming this year, how would you integrate uUrban botany into the course as a way to encourage future botanists?

Urban botany is unique in being accessible to everyone, everywhere. You don’t need to travel to a nature reserve, a woodland, a meadow or other special place to engage with it – it’s quite literally right there on your doorstep. This makes it an ideal subject for the new GCSE, and there are lots of opportunities. Students could look at the phenology of flowering through the year, counting the number of flowers in a given area from the first Dandelions and Groundsel of the year to Herb-Robert and Red Dead-nettle at Easter, and finally Red Valerian and Purple Toadflax before the end of term. Or they could study local walls, seeing how the vegetation varies according to building materials and the direction the wall faces. Or they could look at the impact of footfall on pavements, with fewer plants in areas having most pedestrian traffic. The important thing is that urban plants are fascinating because every species has a story to tell; I love the reaction from kids when you tell them that germinating seeds of Shepherd’s-purse actually kill nematodes to help them survive. It helps bring their environment alive (unless you’re a nematode!).

Iris reticulata x histrioides 'George' by Wendy McCarthy — Iris reticulata x histrioides ‘George’ by Wendy McCarthy

Rewilding is a hot topic in conservation and biodiversity, and No Mow May is a growing campaign many partake in. Can we ‘rewild’ our immediate environment with this changing mindset to benefit urban plants and biodiversity?

I’m glad you’ve put ‘rewild’ in quotes, as it’s become such a diluted phrase – it now seems to cover any conservation action, from planting wildflowers in a window box to reintroducing beavers. Rewilding in its original form (the reintroduction of charismatic mammals to kick-start natural processes) is very difficult to do in urban areas because habitats are so fragmented and anthropogenic pressures are so high. As engaging as they are, I’m afraid beavers can’t do much to improve the diversity of life in the built environment.

But for many people, rewilding simply means reining back on the intensity of management (or even abandoning management at all) and just letting things grow, seed and recover. And in this case, yes, it’s what the urban environment desperately needs. As the creator of the No Mow May campaign, it’s fantastic to see how this approach has captured people’s imaginations and encouraged us to put the mower away, hopefully not just for May but the whole of summer. The results can be spectacular, with orchids appearing on lawns and mini-meadows with carpets of White Clover, Selfheal, Bird’s-foot-trefoil and buttercups.

Urban biodiversity is all about the tension between our desire for control – an environment kept ‘neat and tidy’ through the use of herbicides, mowing and strimming – and our desire for something wilder. We are, I think, still exploring this relationship, trying to become more comfortable with ‘messier’ streets. Many towns and cities are relaxing their use of herbicides and allowing more vegetation to grow, but then often face a backlash from the neat-and-tidy brigade. Hopefully, as is the case in much of Europe, we’ll become more relaxed in the future and begin to embrace more flowers on our streets in the future.

You discuss how the successional stages of our urban landscape provide a unique opportunity for plants from around the world, which is a win for cosmopolitan biodiversity. What can we learn as individuals from the resilience of this vast array of plant life?

I think botanists inherently appreciate that diversity is not just a good thing, but the very foundation of resilience. Each species has its own suite of unique characteristics that help it survive – be it tolerance of drought or pollution, the ability to set seed within just a few weeks, or a particularly successful method of dispersal – and building communities of plants with these different traits helps them survive the intense stresses of the urban environment. We humans are just the same; we are all different, we all have different skills and talents, and we all bring something unique to the party. And if we come together and draw strength from our diversity, we’re much more likely to cope with the everyday stresses of urban life.

Finally, what’s taking up your time at the moment? Are there any other projects you’re working on that we can hear about?

I’m currently working for the Species Recovery Trust, a small but brilliant charity that’s dedicated to the long-term survival and recovery of a suite of highly threatened species. Alongside traditional conservation subjects like Field Gentian and Forked Spleenwort, I’ve just started working on Welsh Groundsel (Senecio cambrensis) – a hybrid between Oxford Ragwort and Common Groundsel. This unique endemic species is only found in north Wales where it grows along pavement edges, roadside hedgerows and on waste ground, usually in urban settings. Unfortunately, it’s fallen victim to the neat-and-tidy brigade, having been lost from dozens of sites due to herbicides and strimming. It’s now only known from five places and is on the brink of extinction, so we have a lot of work to do to bring it back. But I relish this sort of challenge and hopefully we can recover some lost populations in the next few years.

Welsh Groundsel plant beside Chirk Council Office by Trevor Dines

Urban Plants by Trevor Dines is volume 15 of the British Wildlife Collection published by Bloomsbury in Hardback and is available from nhbs here.