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The Peregrine
- Narrated by: David Attenborough
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
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The Peregrine
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Summary
The nation’s greatest voice, David Attenborough, reads J. A. Baker’s extraordinary classic of British nature writing, The Peregrine.
J. A. Baker’s classic of British nature writing was first published in 1967. Greeted with acclaim, it went on to win the Duff Cooper Prize, the pre-eminent literary prize of the time. Luminaries such as Ted Hughes, Barry Lopez and Andrew Motion have cited it as one of the most important books in twentieth-century nature writing.
Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J. A. Baker spent long winters looking and writing about the visitors from the uplands – peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons and waders that share the desolate landscape with them.
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Critic reviews
‘A masterpiece of natural history writing. I would recommend to anybody who loves the English language, let alone birds of prey’ Monty Don, Financial Times
‘Passionately fierce but also wonderfully tender’ Andrew Motion
‘…an inspiring example to future writers, and a gift to lovers of nature.’ The Times Literary Supplement
‘… a literary masterpiece, one of the 20th century’s outstanding examples of nature writing.’ Independent
‘The Peregrine should be known as one of the finest works on nature ever written' BBC Wildlife
‘… some of the most marvellous prose of the twentieth century.’ Literary Review
‘A tour de force … what can I do except praise writing which involves all the senses? This book goes altogether outside the bird-book into literature.’ The Sunday Times
‘A rapt and remarkable book … his phrases have a magnesium-flare intensity.’ Observer
‘… what is certain is that The Peregrine is the most precise and poetic account of a bird – possibly of any non-human creature – ever written in English prose.’ Daily Telegraph
‘J. A. Baker's poetic prose has a hard intensity and an exquisite lyric grace that takes it far beyond the stereotypical stuff of larks ascending and questing voles. Cruelly beautiful and brutally exact, it sees the countryside anew to give us nature in the wild and in the raw.’ The Scotsman
‘Including original diaries from which The Peregrine was written and its companion volume, The Hill of Summer, this is a beautiful compendium of lyrical nature writing at its absolute best […]. For those with an interest in the Peregrine Falcon or classic natural history writing. ‘ Guardian
What listeners say about The Peregrine
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 27-10-21
Unforgettable prose
Without doubt the finest audio book I have ever listened to. Every time I start listening to it I can’t seem to stop. The most vivid and captivating account of a bird or any animal. Though I must admit that for some time I avoided the book as I thought that the content wasn’t to my interest, that was until I sampled it. Most highly recommended
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- P W.
- 07-04-20
Spiritual, poetic Baker and lyrical Attenborough
I have managed to not read this book for nearly 30 years and known about for about 40. What a hideous oversight that seems to have been.
I've just completed my third back-to-back listen and am mesmerised by Baker's wonderful metaphor.
Baker is the epitome of the English amateur, writing observational natural history with the attention to detail of the Victorian entomologist-cum-parson and a poetic style that the greatest nature poets would have hailed.
Attenborough reads the text honourably and in his own style. He is quite the right reader of this extraordinary text.
Mark Cocker and Robert McFarlane both eulogise about Baker's work in a very valuable afterword, as well as providing essential historical, geographical and critical content to the work.
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5 people found this helpful
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- ian c.
- 02-06-20
Entrancing
Wonderful moving prose delivered with impeccable gravitas by Sir David.
Highly recommended listening and as a book to be sipped like a fine wine.
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- Mz Smith
- 07-07-21
Wonderfu
I cannot write a review now because I need to heat it again. What a joy.
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1 person found this helpful
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- jillian bland
- 15-04-21
Beautiful
A true artist in nature. the words are as harsh as they are beautiful.
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- John
- 29-03-20
A unique and poetic work
Over the course of a single winter, Baker 'mans' a tiercel Peregrine without taking it from the wild. He pursues it through its wintering grounds until it accepts him. His diary of his winter's 'hawk-hunting' is so beautifully created almost any lines of the prose could be set down as poetry. But more than that, every detail of the winter wildlife and landscape described here rings like a church bell with truth and acute observation.
It will slay any nature lover willing to pay it attention. (Even Lord Macfarlane, the king of the Cambridge nature-mafia, emulates J.A. Baker in his writing style at times.)
Baker's only other work, The Hill of Summer, is acutely observed and very nicely written, but is without the singular purpose of this masterpiece. He was, I think, a man apart. A patient observer and interpreter of the natural world, and a poetic genius.
One of my top three books of all time. Brilliantly read too.
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- Martin Mcauley
- 16-10-22
sublime
this is one of the greatest audiobooks I have ever listened to. It is almost poetry
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- Katherine Weare
- 18-12-23
Masterly narration of a luminous book.
This is a captivating experience. Listened time and again. But glad things are actually better for peregrines at least.
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- A.Attard
- 01-04-20
the one
iconic not to be missed. A life changing masterpiece of a book.vivid and brilliant like being hypnotised. Read it
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 27-12-21
Attenborough deftly reads Bakers elegy
Attenborough deftly reads Bakers elegy of both bird and the landscape it inhabits.
There is something wise and hopeful in the reading, the brutal winter described as a foreshadow of the spring, the raptors voracious killing and its respect for both its meal and its ever present observer.
Baker seems to consciously remove himself to consentrate the listener on view he offers; in removing the self he makes his deeply personal perspective universal.
Neither novel nor poetry but equal to either in its linguistic richness.
Recommended
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