Michael J Warren - The Cuckoo's Lea

About

Join us for a captivating evening exploring the deep connections between birds, place, and the stories we tell about the natural world. Michael J. Warren will discuss his new book, T he Cuckoos Lea: The Forgotten History of Birds and Place , in conversation with environmental campaigner and author Guy Shrubsole. A key focus in their discussion will be the birds and places Michael encounters in Devon through his family connections to the county.

The spellbinding story of place told through Britains bird place names , The Cuckoos Lea uncovers the hidden bird origins of British place names, weaving together early literature, history, and ornithology to reveal how birds have shaped our landscapes, language, and imaginations. This lyrical and timely book is a call to notice, cherish, and protect the nature embedded in our past and present.

As I sit beneath them, dozens of rooks have become hundreds, then a thousand or more, in a single, threading gyre over Bury Barton hill, near Crediton. More come still from the north and east and west across the valley a thousand Huginns and Muninns returning to Odin with news picked and scavenged from abroa d. (The Cuckoos Lea)
Fo r the medieval community of Exbourne, what they knew saw, heard, felt is water, steady and eternal, clear over dark stone. But they also knew an unmistakeable song. It is passing, here and heard for just a few months in a year; not the eternal purl of the brook, but so affecting that it is deeply associated with that place-defining water, resounding all year through .

Read in wonder and see Britain made anew with eyes that are both ancient and modern. Mary Colwell

Dr Michael J. Warren is a writer, medievalist and naturalist. He teaches English in Chelmsf ord and is a trustee of Curlew Action. He curates The Birds and Place Project (www.birdsandplace.co.uk), a website collecting all bird-related English place names and has been a leading voice in the New Networks for Nature movement.
Guy Shrubsole is an environmental campaigner and author of The Lie of the Land (2024), The Lost Rainforests of Britain (2022)winner of the Wainwright Prize for writing on conservationand Who Owns England? (2019). He has worked for a wide range of organisations, from Friends of the Earth and Rewilding Britain to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.