Birds in a Cage

Derek Niemann

As recommended by Chris Packham on Self Isolating Bird Club.

Four British birdwatchers in a POW camp, the unlikely beginnings of modern wildlife conservation.

In the summer of 1940, lying in the sun, I saw a family of Redstarts, unconcerned in the affairs of our skeletal multitude, going about their ways in cherry and chestnut trees. Soon after his arrival at Warburg PoW camp, British army officer John Buxton found an unexpected means of escape from the horrors of internment. Passing his days covertly watching birds, he was unaware that he, too, was being watched. Peter Conder, also a passionate ornithologist, hat noticed Buxton gazing skywards. He approached him and, with two other prisoners, they founded a secret birdwatching society.

This is the untold story of an obsessive quest behind barbed wire. Through their shared love of birds, the four PoWs overcame hunger, hardship, fear and stultifying boredom. Their quest would draw in not only their fellow prisoners, but also some of the German guards, at great risk to them all.

Derek Niemann draws on original diaries, letters and drawings, to tell of how Conder, Barrett, Waterston and Buxton were forged by their wartime experience into the giants of postwar wildlife conservation. Their legacy lives on.

WILD Sounds & Books will donate at least 10% for all copies sold, to one of Chris's chosen charities - Wild Justice or Wildlife Rebellion or The Wildheart Trust. 302 pages.

Softback £8.99 £8.50