Silent Fields: The Long Decline of a Nation's Wildlife

Introduction; 1. Lost animals: early eliminations by Man; 2. The social background to persecution; 3. To kill a Rat or catch a Kite: methods of control; 4. Killing in Scotland; 5. In on the Act - searching the record; 6. Birds - individual species accounts; (species accounts from the osprey to the kingfisher and house sparrow); 7. Mammals - individual species accounts; (covering species from the hedgehog and badger to the wild cat and pine marten); 8. Local patterns of persecution: England and Wales; 9. The return of the natives; 10. Modern control - legal and illegal; 11. Vermin control and wildlife management: where next?; App. 1 Summary table of vermin payments extracted from churchwardens' documents; App. 2 Scientific names of species mentioned in the text; References; Index

This book provides rich reference material. Shooting and Conservation [An] important survey of British fauna. Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Country Life. Astonishing...magisterial survey. Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Country Life Fascinating to dip into, immediately accessible for reference - essential for your bookshelf. Who Do You Think You Are? A rousing call to action. Andrew Motion, Observer Books of the Year ...excellent book... Robin Page, Shooting Times and Country Magazine ...fascinating... TLS Fascinating. Birds [A] thought provoking and carefully researched book. Country Life Silent Fields was the book that Lovegrove was born to write. His storytelling ability...shines through. Peter Ranscombe, The Scotsman (Critique) An amazing picture..."Ground-breaking" is a much-overused word, but Lovegrove's sweeping and meticulous research is for once genuinely that, endlessly fascinating as well as being elegantly written. Michael McCarthy, The Independent (Review) [An] excellent book. Fergus Collins, Focus The book is much more than a lament for abandoned nests and empty burrows...Silent Fields is a marvellously detailed, hedge-skimming history of rural Britain with all its moral contradictions and complexities. Richard Girling, Sunday Times Fascinating. Sunday Telegraph It's all fascinating stuff. Jeremy Hobson, Countryman's Weekly A fascinating and exhaustive study...Wide-ranging and meticulously researched, Silent Fields is undoubtedly an instant classic - a treasure trove of information about our ancestors' attitudes and their behaviour towards the realm of nature. Mark Cocker, BBC Wildlife Magazine [A] fascinating book...Silent Fields provides a remarkable analysis of the social history of wildlife and our changing attitudes to it...a scholarly yet readable account. Tim Birkhead, Times Higher Education Supplement