A lavishly talented nature writer

A book about almost everything... The clarity, the verve and precision of his writing is perfect

I'm in love with this book. If you like great writing, strange historical twists, adventure, nature, music and/or birds, this will quickly become one of your all-time favourite books

Captivating ... full of insights into not only our planet's evolutionary past but also its future

A fascinating, enjoyable read

A lavishly talented nature writer, [he] weaves a seamless narrative from the most diverse observations ... a master of descriptive nuance

Hugely entertaining and enlightening

'Utterly captivating and beautifully written, this book is a hugely entertaining and enlightening exploration of a bird so wickedly smart, curious, and social, it boggles the mind. Along the way, Meiburg takes us from the Falklands to the UK, from Guyana to the Antarctic and Florida, and from deep time to the present and back again, describing in brilliant language why these birds--and their planet--are the way they are. If you love birds, natural history, science, travel, adventure, or just great writing, you will be rapt'

A book about almost everything... Meiburg tells the biggest of stories via the odd Falkland Islands' raptor, the Johnny Rook... The clarity, the verve and precision of his writing is perfect

A fascinating, entertaining, and totally engrossing story of these under-appreciated birds, deftly intertwining natural history and human history, and with insights and lessons that go far beyond the subject birds

I'm in love with this book. If you like great writing, strange historical twists, adventure, nature, music and/or birds, this will quickly become one of your all-time favourite books

Caracaras are not like other birds, or even other birds of prey. Curious, wide-ranging, gregarious, and intelligent, the ten species of caracara are a scientific puzzle that has intrigued biologists since the days of Darwin. And this book - as curious, wide-ranging, gregarious, and intelligent as its subject - is not like any other book that I have encountered. A Most Remarkable Creature is not only about a bird, but about the community of people that has formed, almost accidentally, around the bird, and beyond that about humankind itself

Does what only the very best science and nature writing can. Jonathan Meiburg reminds us that our world is not fully known, that the prehistoric walk among us, and, most of all, how exciting and unnerving it feels to encounter an animal you've never seen before, and, even more, to find that animal staring right back

Has the breadth and raciness of a Robert Louis Stevenson novel and the warmth of a David Attenborough natural history program ... What is delightful about his book is the love of the world it expresses, and the calm fortitude with which it considers our current predicament

What a remarkable feat: taking a mysterious, oddly social, keenly intelligent bird of prey that most of the world has never heard of and animating the creature with such beauty that it comes fully alive in our imaginations. Jonathan Meiburg went on an equatorial search for the latter-day descendants of the age-old caracara and brought back - a little like Darwin himself - travel report, documentary, biography, social history, scientific treatise. And all of it so wonderfully readable

This book is an evolutionary labyrinth, taking Meiburg to the end of the world following a single, curious predator. Vivid, beautiful, and scientifically rich, crawling with jungle ants, blasted by Antarctic winds, his tales will transport you from the page to wilder places

If you've ever been at a dull party and then met a person who suddenly brightened the vibe with energetic conversation about his abundant enthusiasms, you know a little of what it's like to come upon Jonathan Meiburg and his first book during a pandemic

A wonderful book about a fascinating species of bird. I loved its layering of ethology, travel writing and part biography of the author and naturalist, William Henry Hudson. I found myself as enthralled by the birds as I was by the landscapes of South America - from Patagonia to Guyana - Meiburg travels through in search of them

In A Most Remarkable Creature, Jonathan Meiburg introduces us to surely South America's most misunderstood birds, the caracaras. Written sensitively and with an artist's eye for detail, this beautiful and well-researched book sets the record straight, and leaves us yearning to spend time with these intelligent, curious creatures

[An] elegant debut... Meiburg's voice is poetic... clear and beautiful

Meiburg's writing possesses that rare, and very readable, ability to tread surely between the studious and the conversational that renders his obvious deep knowledge pleasingly lightly-worn

Even non-bird watchers (like me) will enjoy this esoteric and erudite investigation into the striated caracara... the startlingly intelligent, sociable and yet little-known member of the falcon family

I used to look up to the stars for thoughts of infinity, eternity and divine cooperation. This book revealed to me I could find the same inspiration beneath the soles of my feet in less than a foot of soil. My walks on earth will never be the same as they were. The writing, observation and devotion is infectiously compelling. The learning is deep and immense

A magnificent new overview of how we might live and feed ourselves without destroying ourselves ... It is riveting ... Along with a dazzling array of stats, there's also impressive investigative reporting ... rich food for thought, devastating figures, startling insights and even the odd joke ... A hugely important read

A call to raze the pastoral imaginary so that we can begin to think clearly about how we produce food and steward the soil ... To have any chance of turning the age of extinction into an age of regeneration, systemic reform, based on the facts, not pastoral myth-making, is essential

Colossally important... You've got to read it

A treasure trove of hope and solutions, and a vision for a sustainable, healthy, equitable world. We meet inspiring farmers as well as some radical solutions ... Comprehensive, devastating, rousing ... An essential book

Big ideas, beautifully written and the portraits of people building the alternatives are gorgeous! Makes you angry and enraptured with the beauty of the natural world all at once

A paean to the wonder that is the ecology of soil, scientifically informed and beautifully told. The perfect bank holiday read

Phenomenal. Clear, eloquent, fearless and devastating in its analysis. A revolution in the future of food

Glorious ... intelligent, deeply researched .... The point Monbiot makes so ably and so necessarily is that system change is both essential and possible through a complexity of solutions ... The stakes could not be higher. If a book can change hearts and minds about one of the most critical issues of our time, this rational, humane polemic is it

Revolutionary ... Rigorous, bold and clear-sighted ... To conjure the miracle of more food with less farming, we need to rethink what lies beneath our feet

Vivid and memorable... Regenesis is a compelling, deeply researched account of a deeply broken food system and how we might heal it

A compelling story of soil, food and farming

Ambitious and deeply researched ... Monbiot exposes, with journalistic flair, the 'gulf between perception and reality' about where and how our food is produced ... it includes some fascinating case studies ... bristling with ideas and imagination

Eye-opening, persuasive, meticulously researched [...] Monbiot thinks globally [... and] his arguments take account of the needs of everyone in society

A paean to soil, told more gracefully and memorably than anyone before him... Regenesis is likely to become a classic. Monbiot is a writer of the first rank

Inspiring, courageous, and bursting with ideas