The Urban Birder, by David Lindo

New Holland Publishing, 2011; pbk; 224 pp; 30 black-and-white photographs; ISBN 978-1-84773-950-6; Subbuteo code M20941, £9.99 The promotional publicity for this book referred to the author as 'the self-styled Urban Birder' and describes him as 'a one-man ornithological phenomenon'. While most of us have watched birds for years and quietly seen our hobby as something to do when not working, David has cleverly turned it into his work, and barely a week goes by when he is not on TV or radio or appearing in the press talking about birds. Several friends have asked me 'Who is that guy?', and wondered where he has come from. The answers are in this book. Born in London in the 1960s, David was soon interested in birds and faced a challenge familiar to anyone who talked about birds to their school friends - he was mocked. Many people have faced that problem, but having a Jamaican heritage David was even more isolated because birdwatching was not something that other black people did. In fact, some of them accused him of trying to be white. He was, however, clearly a determined kid and knew what he wanted to do, so he continued to watch birds, and he even persuaded some of his friends to join him. Without telling the full story here, this book runs through David's birding life to date, with jaunts to all corners of the UK, and trips to the USA and other foreign cities. Urban birds are featured in most places, but for me this is a autobiography and is refreshingly candid about the difficulties that face a pushy young birder. As a regular visitor to the causeway at Staines Reservoirs in the 1970s I too recognised David's description of the unsmiling people who would turn their backs on fresh-faced YOC members who dared to ask for information! This book tells the story of David Lindo's life so far - during school and teenage years, through to a series of often disappointing jobs to his present role as 'TUB'. David is very open about his ambition to be a TV presenter. He describes how he got a lucky break and used every opportunity to get in front of the camera. If you get to appear on TV regularly, it is easy to believe that you are better than you really are. What comes across in this book is that underneath it all he is a fairly ordinary bloke. Pushy? Yes. Opportunistic? Yes. Stupid? No. Keith Betton Buy this book from the British Birds bookshop which is run by Subbuteo Natural History Books This means that 5% of all sales generated by British Birds subscribers, whether it is books reviewed in the journal, featured on its book page or listed on the Subbuteo website, will be paid to British Birds - and will directly support the production of the journal. To browse the British Birds bookshop, please click here