Robin Redbreast
For practically the whole course of my life I have been conscious of the work of the eminent ornithologist David Lack (1910-1973).
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• Andrew Lack speaks at
Blackwell's, in Oxford |
Mr Lack taught biology at Dartington Hall between 1934 and 1938, where he made his classic study of robins leading to his best-known work The Life Of The Robin. This ran to several editions and once was even used as an O level English text. ( In David G. Jenks' A History Of Devonshire Ornithere are several references to his studie ). He produced other authoritative titles - thirteen in total - including Darwin's Finches (1947) and Swifts In A Tower (1956). One book published in 1950 was a literary collection titled Robin Redbreast.
Imagine my surprise and delight when early last year his likewise distinguished son Dr Andrew Lack, since 1987 a lecturer in biology at Oxford, contacted me. Andrew, it transpired, was engaged in updating and extending Robin Redbreast, now long out of print. It was a honour for me to get involved, to help a little in the transformed version. And, as Richard Mabey says in his Foreword to Redbreast, it really is "a rich re-working" showing that "the bird has always been there in a corner of our hearts".
This charming selection of robin verse and lore is contained in twelve chapters each with a beguiling heading, as follows. 1. 'Tamest of the Feathered Race.' 2. The Saga of *** Robin. 3. 'Piously did Cover them with Leaves.' 4. Robins and Prisoners. 5. 'Robin Redbreast Tunes his Note'. 6. 'Lord in Heaven, how he Sings!' 7. The Robin in Myth and Folklore. 8. 'The Westminster Wonder.' 9.The Robin's Home Life. 10. 'A Robin Redbreast in a Cage.' 11. Robins and Children 12. A Happy Christmas. A literati tour de force yes, with Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy, Robert Bridges, Ted Hughes and over a hundred others represented within the covers, but also an array of revealing studies/observations.
David Lack himself considered the alacrity with which robins can build a nest. "Robins can build fast, the record perhaps being one that built in a gardener's coat pocket between 9.15, when the man had hung up his coat in a shed and lunchtime, when the nest was almost complete. The robin had occasionally been reported ousting another bird from its nest, and even sharing a nest with a great tit or a pied wagtail. "( Records from David Lack, The Life of the Robin, 1943 ). There are two North Devon references. A poem by the Rev. W. Burdett c.mid 19th cent., inspired by a robin's nest found in the reading-desk of North Molton church. And from R.D.Blackmore's Lorna Doone comes "Everyone knows that robins sing all night," which somewhat dispels the theory of street-lighting, and modern-day traffic niose, inducing nocturnal tunings! A truly classic anthology it will bear endless dipping into
Terence Lambert painted the book jacket and there are photos taken by Andrew Lack and cartoons drawn by Euan Dunn (currently head of Marine Policy at the RSPB)
within. The official publication date was February 25.
REDBREAST The Robin in Life and Literature by Andrew Lack ( hardback, £19.95 ) is available from or through good booksellers or, in case of difficulty, from SMH Books, Pulborough, West Sussex, RH20 1NG (email address: smhbooks@email.com. Telephone01798 831906 ) £19.95, post-free. Cheques should be made payable to SMH Saer.
Contact Stewart Beer at: stewart.naturalist@btinternet.com
• Stewart’s anthology An Exaltation of Skylarks, now with four colour plates added, is published by SMH Books ISBN 978-0-9512619-7-2. It can be ordered from all good bookshops, or directly from www.smh-books.co.uk