Had a busy couple of weeks, with a bit of unwanted drama, but one good thing is that a book I've taken AGES to write has moved much closer to publication - we've agreed a title and subtitle and a description, and if everything goes smoothly, you can read a copy on August 17!

One perk of being a friend of an author is you occasionally get to read their books before everyone else. I would love Richard Smyth’s work even if I didn’t know and like him. Looking forward to getting stuck into his latest, “The Jay, the Beech, and the Limpetshell”. Richard really is one of the absolute best nature writers at work today.