SHEARWATER (PB)

At ten weeks old, a Manx shearwater chick will emerge from its burrow on the island of Rum in the Inner Hebrides and fly 8,000 miles to the South Atlantic. It will be unlikely to touch land again for four years. Part memoir, part homage to wilderness, Shearwater traces the author’s 50-year obsession with one of nature’s supreme travellers. He unpicks the science behind its incredible journey, and threads into the story of a year in the shearwater’s life the influence of his Hebridean grandmother, who instilled in him a love of wild places.