When the publishers approached me two years ago and suggested I write a book about birds, I told them there was more chance of Hell freezing over. I put down the phone and walked away chuckling and shaking my head. You could hear the steam rising as the ice caps reached the outer circle of the infernal underworld. Birds? You've got be joking! I don't know the first thing about them!

So what can I say now? Sitting next to my keyboard as I write this, is a chubby little book called Bald Coot and Screaming Loon—and I'm very proud of it, if still a little surprised that it has my name on the cover.