This lovely book is almost as thrilling as the bird's immortal song - balm for a troubled soul and a glimpse of paradise

Wondering and wonderful. The nature book of the year.

A wonderful book.

A magical marriage of the lyrical and practical: a book that makes us want to seek out the nightingale and then reveals how we can.

A beautiful, lyrical, heartfelt book ... Certainly my appreciation of however many nightingalers are left to me will be for ever heightened by the time I've spent with this generous, sensitive book about our most glorious songbird

Truly enchanting. Sam Lee takes the reader by an emotional hand and leads them through the labyrinth of poetry and song to elucidate humans' everlasting attachment to the nightingale.

Sam Lee has brought the poetic magic that has long enchanted so many of his musical fans into the written word. Allow yourself to glimpse the world Sam sees, to be part of his love affair with the nightingale, and you will no doubt be delighted.

Enchanting. Full of piercing joy and love-fuelled lament and urgency. A beautiful book for a beautiful bird.

Beautiful. A book to treasure which I'll keep on returning to.

This is nature writing at its most romantic

This captivating miscellany, richly illustrated with paintings, photographs, maps and line drawings, is a scintillating celebration of the nightingale by a Mercury Prize-nominated folk musician, environmental activist and conservationist.

A marvellous miscellany of the nightingale, the sweet-singing bird which is now, alas, on of the "endlings" - the last of a species facing extinction

Lee's book is not just a lyrically crafted biography, but a moving rebellion against political inaction and lost connections. It is a bell to toll you out into a forest of re-enchantment.

A really beautiful book . . . Lovely.

A vivid and often moving account of a bird that has inspired everyone from the ancients to John Keats and Oliver Messiaen

Heaven to hold in the hand, mind and heart.

Lyrical, sweet and loving, this account of one bird's link to human culture and history through the evocative presence of its voice was impossible to put down.

Lee delves into the intricacies of the song, habitat and migration of this mysterious, enchanting creature in a tale that's as lyrical as the bird itself

A composer who can write as eloquently as he sings. A rare bird, indeed!

With our new-found love of wildlife, this book promises to lift the spirits of not just bird enthusiasts, but nature lovers, too.

The exuberance of folk-singer Sam Lee's The Nightingale is irresistible

A master storyteller

Love storytelling? You need this inspiring book. John Yorke dissects the structure of stories with a joyous enthusiasm allied to precise, encyclopaedic knowledge. Guaranteed to send you back to your writing desk with newfound excitement and drive

Into The Woods is brilliant. One of the best books on script writing out there . . . I loved the book. Inspiring

There is no end of books that instruct us on how to write the perfect screenplay, but few that delve more deeply into the art of storytelling than this erudite volume

Its strength is Yorke's acute perception of the wellsprings of universal narrative structures relevant to all artistic activities

Terrific . . . It's a great read, wise and cogent, and a must for all screenwriters

It's a great read. It makes me smile and say 'Yes!' aloud. Only this and PG Wodehouse do that

Not How 2 Write them but how stories work. John Yorke's Into the Woods: A 5 Act Journey into Story is brilliant, illuminates & explains

I'm only 70 pages into John Yorke's Into the Woods but it's already helped me crack two stories

Highly recommended reading

Yorke is aware that the world is not suffering for lack of prescriptive screenwriting manuals. Instead, with Into the Woods, he takes a scalpel to narrative structure - dissecting protagonist, antagonist, inciting incident, crisis and so on - before asking how and why this underlying shape still holds audiences spellbound like a fairytale witch. "A story is like a magnet dragged through randomness," Yorke writes, but while he elegantly untangles the deepest roots of storytelling, he also honours the human need for truth and sense with some more superficial questions: why do series tend to "jump the shark" round about season three, for example, or why is clunky exposition - particularly in medical dramas - so appallingly comical? Sit comfortably, then begin

I absolutely love this book. It's incredible and so well written. I keep trying to find fault but so far no joy - It's so good

[John Yorke's] writing book is arguably possibly almost as good as mine, all right it's loads better shut up

Probably, in the hackneyed phrase, "the last book on screenwriting you'll ever need." He is very good at debunking the claims of some screenwriting gurus, all of whom are busy trying to sell you their own particular brand of snake oil. It's truly excellent

Of all the books I've read about story construction and the art of fiction, this one is the most comprehensive and concise