Chris Packham’s Nature Handbook (Dorling Kindersley, £14.99) (From The Northern Echo)

Chris Packham’s Nature Handbook (Dorling Kindersley, £14.99)

11:52am Saturday 3rd July 2010 in

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I LIKE to think of myself as something of a nature aficionado. My laptop is almost permanently tuned to a webcam in the African Bush, I have spotters’ books galore, I Sky+ Springwatch and my backyard is awash with feeders, bird tables and the like.

So when I got my hands on this tome inspired by TV naturalist Chris Packham I wondered just how much he’d be able to tell me that I didn’t already know. A pleasant surprise awaited.

Barely a subject, species or phenomena goes unmentioned in the more than 250 pages that form this beautifully put-together book.

From weather patterns, global warming and how raindrops are formed, Packham and his band of huge-brained contributors also explain about the kit you need to study your flora and fauna at home and abroad, ecosystems, life both on and under the water and the wonders of geology.

Each page has been painstakingly laid-out in an almost scrapbook style, with thousands of pictures and intelligent use of fonts to differentiate between items.

This handily-sized book, suitable for early teens to grown-ups, can be read from front to back, back to front or, as I like to do, by just randomly dipping in and out. Whatever your choice you are bound to find out something that had previously never crossed your mind – a book whose content is as wide and varied as the nature around us.