Author:Will Young,Dermot O’Leary,Sue Perkins,Monty Don,Chris Packham,Will Young,Dermot O’Leary,Michael Morpurgo,Sue Perkins,Monty Don,Chris Packham,Samuel West,Greta Scacchi,Alison Steadman,Various
Bird lovers including Will Young, Samuel West, Dermot O'Leary, Greta Scacchi and Sue Perkins introduce us to their favourite birds - plus, Alison Steadman presents The Twelve Tweets of Christmas
Since 2013, Tweet of the Day has been a daily delight for early risers, with its 90 seconds of beautiful birdsong and fascinating ornithological stories. But what of the people who tune in to this avian chorus? In this collection, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of an array of wildlife enthusiasts, all eager to recount their encounters with birds - among them 'Birdgirl' Mya-Rose Craig, writers Joe Harkness, Amy Liptrot, Melissa Harrison and Mark Cocker, Springwatch host Lindsey Chapman and the staff at Slimbridge Wetland Centre, the RSPB, BirdLife International and the British Trust for Ornithology. Together, they guide us through the year, from May to March, and introduce us to the birds that have inspired them.
We also hear from some unexpected celebrity sources, who share stories of the birds that catch their eyes - and their ears. Will Young tells us about seeing a Woodland Kingfisher as a child in South Africa; Sue Perkins recalls coming face to face with a Great Horned Owl and Greta Scacchi reveals her fondness for the magnificent Goldfinch.
Other famous names include Samuel West, who counts the turkey-like Capercaillie and the dapper, white-bibbed Dipper among his ten picks; and Dermot O'Leary, whose five choices include 'the Alsatian of the skies', the Greater Black-Backed Gull. Jimi Goodwin, the lead singer in Doves, swerves his band's titular bird in favour of the Cuckoo and the Mallard; while musician Fyfe Dangerfield celebrates the two birds that gave his bands their names - Guillemots and Gannets - along with eight others, and uses his own birdsong recordings to experiment in music.
Also featured is The Twelve Tweets of Christmas, in which Alison Steadman provides a selection of festive editions inspired by the well-known carol 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'.
Production credits
Produced by Maggie Ayre, Miles Warde, Tom Bonnett, Eliza Lomas, Mark Ward, Karen Gregor, Tim Dee, Sarah Blunt and Andrew Dawes
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.
A game-changer! People are hungry for a plan to reverse ocean death so we can keep breathing!
—— Margaret Atwood, TwitterI doubt any more important book will be published this year. Charles Clover tells (with spirit and style) an alarming and convincing story, yet it is one that offers hope and a way forward for our beleaguered oceans ... and us.
—— Stephen Fry[An] optimistic manifesto for change...There are so many stories here of nature's titanic powers - if only we give her a chance - that it's ultimately a genuinely optimistic and energising read
—— Sunday TimesThis book is desperately needed. Interest in terrestrial rewilding is rocketing and now it is time for the sea. The material Charles Clover will be covering is rich, urgent and fascinating. There will be so many people who will be desperate to get behind this book.
—— Isabella TreeThis uplifting book proves rewilding can fill oceans with teeming life again...powerful...forceful...
—— TelegraphWhat if our seas became productive again with giant sturgeon, halibut and skate? What if we let the seas soak up carbon from the atmosphere like the peat bogs instead of battering them with trawls and dredges? It's closer than you think. In fact, as Charles Clover explains, rewilding the sea has already begun.
—— George MonbiotAn important, intriguing and informative book' with 'admirable optimism
—— David Profumo, SpectatorTwo deadly problems: the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse. One elegant solution: Rewild the ocean.
—— Sylvia EarleThe Oceans are in a bad state, mainly because of overfishing, but there is hope: the solutions are here.
—— Daniel PaulyMarine conservation successes are at the heart of Charles Clover's latest book.
—— Financial TimesSave the ocean to help feed the world. From Lyme Bay to Ascension Island, Clover shows how it can be done.
—— Ted DansonAbundant oceans are a huge gift we can present to the future. In this terrific book Charles Clover shows how it can be done with actual tales of rebuilding success.
—— Andrew Sharpless, CEO OceanaCharles Clover brings a lifetime's commitment to and expertise in environmental causes to this impassioned plea to save our oceans from dereliction. He has been a pioneer in this field and his book should command the attention of everyone who cares about our planet's future.
—— Simon HefferWhat Charles Clover's inspirational book shows us is that if we replicate just the good decisions we have taken about the ocean we will bring back rare species, enhance the capacity of the ocean to capture carbon and have more fish to catch. In future, we have to protect more of the ocean, but protection will work for everyone.
—— Lewis PughThis week, the Supreme Court nominated Margaret Atwood for a Nobel Prize in Prescience
—— Washington PostA poetic journey of restoring nature in an iconic landscape. Wild Fell informs and inspires.
—— Jake FiennesA visionary, practical and lyrical book on restoring land, from one of the best in the game, on the front line of nature restoration.
—— Benedict MacdonaldLee Schofield's Wild Fell is a soaring elegy to nature, a book infused with a deep love of place, and a stirring call to restore wildlife to our landscapes. Written with wit, verve and humility, Wild Fell is above all a story of hope, weaving together deep insights about botany and the history of the land with a wisdom won through years of practical experience.
—— Guy ShrubsoleWild Fell is a beautiful, powerful book that subtly navigates great and complex challenges.
—— George MonbiotA funny, modest, intellectually robust individual, serious about the range of policies needed for transformation. Miliband assures us this is not a manifesto. To my mind, it should be
—— Ann Pettifor , Times Literary SupplementDespite having an engrossing plot, the book reminds you that plot is never really the point of a great novel, and this is a great novel
—— Erica Wagner , Financial TimesA beautifully wrought saga of human connection and the creative process, of love and all of its complicated levels. A gem of a novel, intimate yet sweeping, modern yet timeless. Bits of this book lingered in my head the way ghosts of Tetris pieces continue to fall in your mind's eye after playing
—— ERIN MORGENSTERNI read this in one sitting - I physically couldn't put it down. It is just as wonderful as everyone says
—— LOUISE O'NEILL, author of IdolI loved this novel about two kids setting up a computer games company. What fascinated me is it's not about a romantic relationship but friendship.
—— Mat Osman , The TimesGets at so much about work, love and storytelling. It's a book that spawns great conversations
—— Maggie Shipstead , GuardianYou needn't be a gamer to be charmed by this immersive tale of friendship, creativity and life's messy wonders
—— Mail on SundayI cannot recommend it highly enough
—— HANK GREEN, InstagramWhen was the last time I read a book that surrounded me like this? . . . I'm blown away
—— KATIE CLAPHAM, Storytellers IncI love it so much. So so much
—— MELINDA SALISBURY, author of The Sin Eater's DaughterYou'll be sobbing behind your Celine sunnies
—— Evening StandardUtterly absorbing
—— WiredAn artfully balanced novel - charming but never saccharine. The world Zevin has created is textured, expansive and, just like those built by her characters, playful
—— Pippa Bailey , ObserverThis book is impossibly good-one of the best books I've ever read in my entire life. I press it into people's hands with a demented kind of urgency. 'Yeah, yeah, I don't care about video games either. I promise you'll love it.' And everybody does. How did Gabrielle Zevin write such a perfect novel about friendship? I mean, really. How? In any case, she did, and it's a treasure
—— CATHERINE NEWMANTremendous new novel about art, friendship and gaming . . . a literary blockbuster destined to be filed in the Great American Novel category
—— Helen Brown , Independent"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" is actually a novel about friendship . . . a creative partnership as intense as a marriage . . . draws any curious reader into the pioneering days of a vast entertainment industry too often scorned by bookworms. And with the depth and sensitivity of a fine fiction writer, Zevin argues for the abiding appeal of the flickering screen
—— Ron Charles , Washington PostA brilliant story about life's most challenging puzzles: friendship, family, love, loss. By turns funny, poignant, wistful, and occasionally devastating
—— NATHAN HILL, author of THE NIXThe sort of book that comes around once in a decade - a magnificent feat of storytelling. It is a book about the intersection between love and friendship, work and vocation, and the impossible and relentless pull of our own west-bound destinies
—— REBECCA SERLE, author of In Five YearsSam and Sadie's relationship is pure wizardry; it's deep and complex, transcending anything we might call a love story. Whether you care about video games or not is beside the point. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is the novel you've been waiting to read
—— Book Page, Chika GujarathiI feel completely changed by this book from Gabrielle Zevin. It's a book about love - about friendship, but really it transcends the borders of storytelling. My heart ached when I finished it. Truly unforgettable
—— CATHERINE CHO, author of InfernoThe perfect engrossing holiday read...beautiful and heartbreaking
—— The Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*Zevin's delight in her characters, their qualities, and their projects sprinkles a layer of fairy dust over the whole enterprise. Sure to enchant even those who have never played a video game in their lives, with instant cult status for those who have.
—— KirkusA one-of-a-kind achievement
—— Publishers WeeklyA particularly memorable and compelling kind of love story... [a] nuanced depiction of human connection over 30 years that will have you blinking back tears behind your sunglasses
—— Culture Whisper, *Summer Reads of 2022*dazzling and intricately imagined
—— B&N ReadsZevin's writing is like being put under a spell. She's kind of magical.
—— Liberty Hardy , WBEZSure to enchant even those who have never played a video game in their lives, with instant cult status for those who have.
—— Kirkusexhilarating
—— Smithsonianengrossing
—— Wall Street Journaldelightful and absorbing . . . expansive and entertaining
—— Tom Bissell , New York TimesThe go-to for your next hit of Nineties nostalgia; if you ever spent too long playing Donkey Kong, this one's for you
—— Evening Standard, *Summer Reads of 2022*This is a boy meets girl story that is never a romance - though it is romantic . . . Their relationship is a joining of minds and of worlds that is both purer and sweeter than any base physical attraction
—— Pippa Bailey , ObserverBig-hearted, generous, intelligent and open to the complexities of life
—— Irish IndependentA novel that treasures the act of play and holds it sacred . . . the world of video games and video game development is just the landscape in which life plays out . . . Tomorrow is about love, above all things
—— Sarah Maria Griffin , GuardianDelightful and absorbing
—— Tom Bissell , International New York TimesTeenagers of the 21st century are as likely to bond over video games as they are rock music or movies. Gabrielle Zevin's exhilarating, timely and emotive book is perhaps the first novel to truly get to grips with what this means
—— GuardianExhilarating... this is refreshingly original
—— PsychologiesIt is the imaginary world of a game, a world Zevin describes with the addict's ardour, which forms a universe even the sturdiest parent or antediluvian book-lover will be enticed into.
—— Big IssueFriendship, love, loyalty, violence in America and the magic of invented worlds. Gorgeous
—— PeopleTomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a special book -- one that transports readers fully, as games do their players, into its immaculately crafted world
—— The TimesWoven throughout are meditations on originality, appropriation, the similarities between video games and other forms of art, the liberating possibilities of inhabiting a virtual world, and the ways in which platonic love can be deeper and more rewarding - especially in the context of a creative partnership - than romance.
—— New YorkerZevin probes at many of the themes that energize video games as a medium: their narrative depth, their therapeutic value, their casual violence, their toxic industry. And the possibility of living a better life in a virtual world
—— WiredZevin has the ability to make you care about her creations within paragraphs of meeting them... whose fates I consistently worried about when I occasionally had to put the book aside.
—— Financial Times[An] engrossing, delightful novel... Zevin has the ability to make you care about her creations within paragraphs of meeting them... [Tomorrow] is rich with characters whose intertwined fates power the narrative
—— Financial TimesThis book, with its respect for craft-the craft of love and games, or loving games-will remind you of how abundant one life is, how lucky we are to keep each other in our memories forever.
—— Kotaku[I] raced through this pure wonder of a book in a few days
—— NINA MINGYA POWLES, author of Small Bodies of WaterA 2022 book that everyone should read
—— Pandora Sykes , Stylist LIVEA must-read
—— Neil DruckmannAnyone who reads Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow can't stop talking about it
—— StylistUtterly beautiful and endlessly hopeful, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a love letter to life, friendship, and creativity
—— The Skinny, *Books of 2022*[The] 2022 book that everyone should read
—— Pandora Sykes , Stylist LiveMy #1 book to recommend . . . incredible, like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon meets The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. It's about love and friendship and video games
—— Emma StraubIt feels right that the best video game novel out there is by a woman. Her story about the decades-long friendship and partnership between video game designers Sam and Sadie gets at so much about work, love and storytelling. It's a book that spawns great conversations.
—— Irenosen Okojie, author of NudibranchIn following Sam and Sadie's journey from Massachusetts to California and into the imagined worlds of their games, Zevin writes the most precious kind of love story
—— Time Magazine, Best Novel of the YearZevin's writing is poetic, the plot is entertaining, moving and gripping and the nods to real life video games make it all feel incredibly real
—— Skinny, *Books of the Year*Reading this is almost like an invitation from Zevin to enter a game...with every scene and moment so carefully constructed. Just brilliant
—— Skinny, *Books of the Year*I loved it
—— Sarah KeyworthA hugely enjoyable novel about lives and loves mediated by technology
—— Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2023*This playful, accomplished novel is a poignant celebration of friendship, love - and gaming
—— Daily MailAn engrossing coming-of-age story
—— Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*Epic in scale, with unforgettable characters, it breaks you heart and puts it back together
—— Daily Express, *Books of the Year*