Review: Mateship with Birds

[GregH]

Well it's not so much a review but a report of a review in the Spectrum magazine from last weekend's, Spectrum magazine from the Sydney Morning Herald (Feb 18-19). I was charmed buy the description of Carrie Tiffany's novel "Mateship With Birds". The title is a direct reference to Alec Chisholm's book of the same title published in 1922. This is of course a fictional book concerning human relationships so don't expect a "bird book" in the sense of Russell Kinston's bedside companion. For those that don't know Alec Chisholm was once one of Australia's best known journalists and ornithologist. From what Andrew Riemer (SMH Chief Book reviewer) has said, it appears Tiffany has faithfully recreated Chisolm's ornithological world of the 1950's in his review. I for one will be keeping my eyes open for this book. If someone has any recollections of Chisolm I for one would love to hear them as although he died in 1977 I was only a kid then and only vaguely aware of his influence. There were quite a few "Naturalists" as we called them then such as Vincent Serventy, Eric Worrell and Harry Buttler each of whom gave me such a strong love of Australian wildlife. To have recreated this near-recent world is something that appeals to me as I contemplate my present urban lifestyle and contrast it to how I grew up.
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[matcho]

Greg,
Read the review, not about birds in the whole( as we know them, the avian kind). Only reference in the review is about the dairy farmer who loves his kookaburras (among other things) and has a relationship with a young boy which I wouldn't be comfortable with. I think the title doesn't mean much in the avian kind of way. The original author may have been a respected ornithologist/journalist but I think he strayed a little bit on the dark side with this tome. I don't think Hallstrom, Serventy, Butler or Worrell published material such as this and personally wouldn't waste the thirty odd bucks to read about "Mateship With Birds" if it didn't have in it what the title infers. Just my thoughts.

[matcho]

Re previous post

Greg,
accept my humble apologies re Chisholm and his original publication in 1922. Just did some research and if CJ Dennis gives it the thumbs up in 1950 about his observations and thoughts about our fine feathered friends then thats Ok by me and wouldn't mind getting a copy for a squiz and a good read. On the other hand from what I can gather about this publication of the same name by Claire Tiffany (who is supposed to be a Park Ranger) is as close as Star Wars is to 1 Million Years BC (ahhh Raquel Welch.. bring back the memories ) Still wouldn't waste the money though on her publication.

Matcho