A young man loves sea birds, his gran, and the Scottish island where he spends his childhood summers. This book explores his relationship with these things, examining how they have influenced his life.
In part, this book is a memoir. It explores the author’s childhood holidays and his adult life as a soldier in the British army, especially his time on the Falkland Islands.
His love of the shearwater runs the book. The bird travels 1000 of miles in their lifetime, rarely touching the ground. This book is, in part, an exploration of the science, and myth, surrounding this bird.
At the age of fifty, the author decides to travel the globe following the path of the Shearwater. The book follows his travels. At each stage, he explores the country in which he is stationed. The author explores the bird’s relationship with this part of the globe, using it as a starting point for an explanation of the health of nature in the country where he is currently located.
I loved how this book focuses on the adventures of an older person. As someone who is growing older, this book was inspirational.
This book is the story of three lives; the life of a bird species, the life of an individual human, and the life of a planet. It is a really enjoyable read.

Fascinating exploration of the Manx shearwater and also a memoir of the author, his first encounters with the bird and the impact they had on his life and love of nature, inspiring him to go on a journey across the world to mimic the mind blowing journey of the Manx shearwater. This book made made me fall in love with this bird and I’m now desperate to see it at Skomer. I also enjoyed the authors tales of his travels and connections with his wild childhood. I would recommend for anyone who loves birds, travel and nature writing.

Morgan-Grenville weaves a delightful celebration of the solitary Manx Shearwater and their habits and habitats. But he also touches on how human behaviour has led to decreased populations of birds in general and the wider natural world. A fascinating, well written and engaging read for any bird or nature enthusiast.

The Manx Shearwater, Puffinus Puffinus, is a medium-sized seabird that visits the western coast of the UK each summer to breed. The rest of its life is spent on the open ocean, predominantly off the coast of South America. By the time it is 50 years old, a single bird may have covered over a million km on migration alone.

Shearwater is part natural history book, part nature journal and part memoir. Not only do we learn a fascinating array of facts about the bird itself, but we learn how the author first encountered and became captivated with these marvellous birds and join him as he follows them around the globe.

It was also intriguing to compare the field methods of early nature pioneers such as Ronald Lockley (hint: not always enjoyable for the Shearwaters themselves) with the methodology employed by field researchers today.

I approached this book as a keen nature enthusiast and wildlife watcher. I have seen Manx Shearwater out at sea; I have been to their island breeding ground of Skomer. Whilst some of the travel log sections felt a tad repetitive at times, on the whole I found this to be a fascinating read. Recommended for bird and nature lovers everywhere.

Thank you to NetGalley and Icon Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a novice birder, new to the study of our feathered friends. Reading something that revolves around one particular bird was a little daunting, but 'Shearwater' is a lot more than a book about a bird. Roger Morgan-Grenville takes us through his early encounters with this seabird, way up and around the Hebridean islands of Scotland, across the years and miles to the other side of the world. In between we are treated to recollections of a life of travel and a cast of characters who fill each page with charm and wisdom. Yes, there were facts about the Manx Shearwater and I now know more about their stiff-winged flaps and glides, lengthy migrations and nesting in burrows. It's a bevvy of facts and figures about a little appreciated, greatly overlooked bird woven into a memoir or is it a memoir woven into a factual book about a bird? Either way, Morgan-Grenville pulls you into his life, his passions and his ornithological journey and his easy style of prose keeps you reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a proof copy in return for my review.

The Manx shearwater (puffinus puffinus) spends most of its life at sea, commuting 20,000 miles clockwise round the Atlantic each year, following the trade winds as early navigators did, returning to land only to breed.  Its three main breeding sites are on Rum, Skomer and Skokholm islands, off the west coasts of Scotland and Wales.  Like the puffin, it raises its chicks in burrows but, to avoid its predators, it only leaves the relative safety of the sea in the pitch dark of night when they land in their thousands to attend to the important business of maintaining their burrows, mating and raising their solitary chick.  When the 70 day old fledgling leaves its burrow, having been deserted by its parents some time before, it will not touch land again for between 2 and 4 years.  It is a remarkable life to learn about and Morgan-Grenville makes it an interesting read. Thanks to the author, I should now be able to recognise a Manx shearwater from their distinctive flight pattern across the tops of the waves, giving them their name - flap, flap, flap, glide.

Spending time with researchers in various locations, M-G finds their dedication and enthusiasm inspiring. Most of their work is necessarily done in pitch dark, on the sides of cliffs or mountains, often in horrible conditions. He is clearly full of admiration for them and, as someone who cannot imagine being so obsessed with anything that I would want to camp out in a tent or hut on an island for months on end (not for one minute in my case!), spending my nights scrambling around on cliff faces surrounded by the unearthly din created by thousands of shearwaters, so am I! 

Roger had planned to follow the Manx shearwater’s annual journey from its breeding grounds in Britain down to Brazil and Argentina and then north towards the Caribbean and up the east coast of the United States before heading home again.  Covid didn’t stop the shearwaters but it sadly thwarted his plans and only the Argentine leg could be completed. I enjoyed his trip to the south western tip of Ireland to watch for the shearwaters returning in March, however, and perhaps he wouldn’t have made that trip if he had been able to travel further afield.

While I found the book interesting and shared the author’s enthusiasm for his investigative journey, it most definitely suffers from him being unable to complete his travels.  I found it became quite repetitious for a while as the blank pages were filled in.  An abiding image will be the picture he paints of droves of oceanic birds returning to Britain each spring - shearwaters, puffins, razorbills, guillemots and the rest - from their overwintering in Newfoundland, Iceland, and elsewhere.  It reminded me of the droves of cattle travelling to market from all airts and pairts of Scotland that I read about in The Drove Roads of Scotland.  Admittedly very different but the picture in my mind is very similar. The book is also a memoir about his childhood visits to his grandmother in Mull, a wonderful woman that we would all have loved as a guiding influence in our lives. I love Mull and enjoyed reminiscing with him. 3.5 stars.

With thanks to NetGalley and Icon Books for a review copy.

Roger Morgan-Grenville’s magical childhood summers spent at his grandmother’s Hebridean croft on the Isle of Mull were the catalyst for his love of the natural world. Summers spent working hard in the mornings and playing hard after the work was done, with a grandmother who was “more gang-leader than grandparent”leading the charge for adventure and exploration of the natural world. It was here that his interest in and affection for birds - particularly the Manx Shearwater - was kindled.

Shearwater is a clever marriage of ornithology and a biographical yarn you might hear from one with an interesting life lived. At the heart of this book is a man who still holds the boyish wonder of childhood close, who is passionate about the natural world and preservation. All in all a delightful read.

I had heard about Shearwaters but knew very little about these specialised ocean travelling birds. You wouldn't think a book could be crafted of interest about the life and times of such a creature.
The author weaves a very detail description of how these birds breed and travel. How far they travel is quite amazing and the book follows their journeys halfway round the globe and back. The author is on a crusade driven by his boyhood memories of first seeing a Manx Shearwater. We meet many characters along the way including his charismatic grandmother who had great influence on his formative years. A lovely book.