Field Notes from a Hidden City by Esther Woolfson

Field Notes from a Hidden City

by Esther Woolfson

Field Notes From a Hidden City is set against the background of the austere, grey and beautiful northeast Scottish city of Aberdeen. In it, Esther Woolfson examines the elements - geographic, atmospheric and environmental - which bring diverse life forms to live in close proximity in cities. Using the circumstances of her own life, house, garden and city, she writes of the animals who live among us: the birds - gulls, starlings, pigeons, sparrows and others; the rats and squirrels; the spiders and the insects.In beautiful, absorbing prose, Woolfson describes the seasons, the streets and the quiet places of her city over the course of a year, which begins with the exceptional cold and snow of 2010. Influenced by her own long experience of corvids, she considers prevailing attitudes towards the natural world, urban and non-urban wildlife, the values we place on the lives of individual species and the ways in which man and creature live together in cities.

Reviewed by brokentune on

2 of 5 stars

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I don't know what it was with this book, but after reading [b:Corvus: A Life with Birds|4445165|Corvus A Life with Birds|Esther Woolfson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347313081s/4445165.jpg|4493376], this one just paled in comparison. Woolfson seemed to repeat some of the stories in Corvus (or at least make reference to them without further explanation) and seemed to jump all over the place.

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  • Started reading
  • 6 August, 2017: Finished reading
  • 6 August, 2017: Reviewed