In Search of One Last Song: Britain’s disappearing birds and the people trying to save them

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In terms of both scope and execution, this book is a hugely impressive achievement, and it will be fascinating to see where Galbraith goes from here.” - The Scotsman

One of the great oral histories of British nature and the British countryside ... Sad and honest and important and often very funny' Richard Smyth, Review 31 I've given three stars rather than two because there are still some shining moments in the book, but you have to wade through a lot of non-important stuff to get to them. Sometimes these birds figure as direct links to precious personal histories. ‘Heard it purring in the hedge,’ remembers Graham Denny in Suffolk, thirteen days after his father died, ‘and I just howled and howled. Turtle doves is something I shared with my dad my whole life.’ In Search of One Last Song is steeped in loss; an evocative and beautifully-written history of the complex relationship between Britain's people and its birds.' JONATHAN SLAGHT: author of the award-winning Owls of the Eastern Ice

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Tom was living there alone and most days it would fly down to see him. All morning we sat in a shed at the bottom of his garden and talked about what birds mean to him as a poet. It’s a journey to the margins – often geographically, always culturally. Chris Dodson, a thatcher in the East Anglian fens, explains that with the demise of managed reed beds the bittern is losing its ancestral home. Old Billy Jolly in Kirkwall remembers when industrial fishing first stripped the local waters of sand eels, staple diet of the kittiwake (whose numbers in Orkney have now fallen by 90%). Graham Denny on his 200-acre Suffolk farm puts hedges over profit for the sake of the area’s few returning turtle doves. The writing is strong, the book an impressive debut, establishing Galbraith as a quality writer.” - Tim Dee, Caught by the River One of the great oral histories of British nature and the British countryside … Sad and honest and important and often very funny” - Richard Smyth, Review 31 It's a delight to jump into this slightly strange parallel world. Galbraith is such an able communicator of its weirdness, that it is a pleasure to go along for the ride"

A modern pastoral written with intelligence, wit and lyricism.' CAL FLYN: author of the best-selling Islands of Abandonment A modern pastoral written with intelligence, wit and lyricism”. CAL FLYN: author of the best-selling Islands of Abandonment I’ve been looking forward to reading this book – but with some trepidation. I know the author just a little, he bought me lunch once, and I chose my words carefully and somewhat guardedly with him. Why? Because he is the editor of the Shooting Times. In terms of both scope and execution, this book is a hugely impressive achievement, and it will be fascinating to see where Galbraith goes from here.' The Scotsman

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This is no fluffy synodical motion about brother and sister bird, however; Galbraith is a proper countryman, and refreshingly honest about the fact that conservation often involves culling. Creation is not some story-book abstract here, but a lived reality: the people and places as known and loved as the birds and their song. The book is a triumph and well worth a meditative read, a love song to Britain’s birds and to those who love them. May they continue to “praise him and magnify him for ever”. In terms of both scope and execution, this book is a hugely impressive achievement, and it will be fascinating to see where Galbraith goes from here." Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse. An important and timely book that explores the human context of an ecological emergency. Galbraith is a thoughtful, assured and elegant writer who brings a mature intelligence and open-minded insight to his subject." There’s a ­suddenness and a spontaneity with birds. An encounter might ­suggest a line or a phrase or an image which ­allows me to compose. It’s immense joy and I think birds allow you to meditate on the impossible.”

Whether it’s the spire of St Lawrence’s, Lechlade, leading him in the general direction of a partridge, the touching inscriptions on the graves of a country churchyard which reverberate with the call of a turtle dove, or the glorious time when, in search of a kittiwake, we are treated to a man in Twatt, Orkney, who is midway through a steak slice, describing the Church of Scotland’s Great Disruption as a fit of “religious mania”. Galbraith is constantly encountering religion while on his own pilgrimage, and writes of it with care and affection. Galbraith's writing is beautiful [...] In Search of One Last Song feels like an important step in the right direction"Wonderful and enriching' Adam Nicolson 'The best book on conservation and the countryside I have read in years' John Lewis-Stempel 'A modern pastoral written with intelligence, wit and lyricism' Cal Flyn Our wild places and wildlife are disappearing at a terrifying rate.