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Books Related to "Springwatch" and "Autumnwatch" Bill Oddie, Kate Humble, Simon King - ISBN: 0007247060
interesting - Rated
Good interesting accounts, especially those by the 3 presenters. But the small telephone directory like text which helps to fill out the book is very annoying. It rehashes what the presenters just described, and really leave the impression that this was done to fill space. I didn't bother to read them, the text was insultingly small too. Get the book, read the good bits, you'll probably enjoy it, as I have, but I couldn't be bothered with the tiny text pages of monotonous and tiresome repetition.
More of a 'recap' than anything new - Rated
First and foremost there are a few facts you should know when considering buying this book. Firstly it does not cover Springwatch 2007 (or after), concentrating on 2005/6 with references to previous years.
Second, the book is dominated by Bill Oddie with significant contributions from Simon King and the producer Stephen Moss, but there is surprisingly little input from Kate Humble who writes less than 20 pages out of 255!
Thirdly Autumnwatch is covered very briefly taking up approximately 20 pages. This is understandable as Springwatch is the bigger and longer running show but i feel Autumnwatch could have been covered in more detail.
The book centres around an extensive diary written by Oddie over the coarse of Springwatch 2006. This is enlightening in parts but has the feel of being sneakily written some time after the event. The diary is interjected every couple of days by a chapter on that episode's highlight written by King, Moss or Humble. These chapters tell the story of the individual animal and give some background information on the species, but can get a little tiring as they often repeat what Oddie has written in his diary.
The main positive from this book was that the presenters clearly wrote the articles themselves and did their own editing. Although this leads to literary mistakes you do get the sense of their individual personalities. This is a welcome change from many books by Oddie and King which are obviously edited by a third person.
As it was written in early 2007 I had hoped it might include a 'latest news' on some of the individuals from previous years, but disappointingly it only gives us information up to the end of the series that the individuals figured in.
In short this book is a chance to reminisce on our favourite bits of the series and with no DVD released is probably the best way to do so. Just don't expect anything new, and although the photographs are mostly good they're nothing that can't be found somewhere else.
An excellent companion to the series - Rated
This book is ideal for followers of the show as it covers the history of the programme up to the start of the current Springwatch, together with chapters on related topics by the individual contributors.
A fair chunk of it is typical Bill Oddy, but in a good way as befits a book for all ages and levels of enthusiasm and balanced out by sizeable contributions by the other contributors particularly Simon King.
I normally hate 'books of the programme' but this is really worth looking at if you are one of the thousands of fans.
