Emma Ford

Twenty years after I first saw this book and decided I'd like a copy, I've managed to obtain one. I worked at a bookshop then, and even with staff discount I couldn't quite afford it before it went out of print. But since the internet came along I've looked out for it periodically and finally found a second-hand, only slightly battered, copy last week.

It's a most beautiful book, both readable and knowledgeable, with superb illustrations. The author's love of this magnificent species is very obvious and the peregrine's own enjoyment of its powers of flight come across equally clearly.

It's been worth the wait. Now all I have to do is get this large-format, very heavy book back to Australia.… (lisätietoja)

This is a companion volume to 'Peregrine' by the same author, and is an equally alluring investigation into, and celebration of, a most charismatic falcon. The illustrations are beautiful, showing gyrs in their wild and windy Arctic habitat, and there's a real sense of the quirky personality shown by many of these birds. I particularly liked the story related by an American involved in a banding-and-release programme, of 'Whitey', a hopelessly inquisitive female, who 'insisted on trying every method' of being trapped.

I've never even held a gyrfalcon on the fist, let alone flown one, but I can dream; and this book is an excellent aid to dreaming.… (lisätietoja)

The Wings of Kent

Beginning at the age of five years old, Emma Ford embarks on a lifelong journey from the countryside of Kent to the Arabian Peninsula as a falconer, and lover of all animals God put on this earth. Fledgling Days is Emma’s memoir of her precious and cherished years as a young girl lucky enough to be raised on a farm in the country right next door to a historical English castle. These sweet and often hilarious stories are of her slow education into the lives of creatures large and small, as she too grows from child to woman. Drowning in soppy clothes as she learns the hard way to milk a goat, breaking toes as she gets trampled on by a horse while she picks his hooves, teaching ferrets to round up rabbits for supper, and flying her first kestrel, are all in a days work as animal husbandry takes over Emma’s life.

Living with her mother, Emma has a rather independent life, and is fearless and brave as she experiences one animal escapade after another. Cats, dogs, owls, eagles, kestrels, falcons, cows, goats, horses, and ferrets, all jockey for a place in Emma’s heart as she learns to care for them, house them, train them, love them and lose them. Trials and tribulations of Emma and her pets, and the steady growth of her knowledge, and of herself as a mature woman, grace these pages with charming antidotes.

These are delightful tales of one woman who lived for a life with falcons and any critter that crawled her way. Training next door at the castle to fly and show falcons at their visitor display led her into offers of writing books on falconry, television shows, parts in movies, and later on an esteemed privileged trip to visit a Sheik on the Arabian Peninsula that culminates into a job offer to live and train his birds of prey.

I sincerely loved Emma and enjoyed watching her grow up as the story progresses, and was truly enlightened as an animal lover to hear of her wonderful life learning to be a full time falconer. This book is highly recommended for any lover of birds of prey or animal lovers in general. Heartwarming, funny, and entertaining.… (lisätietoja)