Guests of Summer

The story unfolds in a small Dutch village where the author, Theunis Piersma, lives and looks at the historic and contemporary connectedness of lives, both of birds and people.

Intrigued by the House Martins nesting on his house, Piersma starts to explore the lives of these wonderful summer visitors, weaving in a tapestry than connects Anglo-Saxon migrations, Shakespeare's writings, political upheaval in the Congo, climate change and the big and frightening downsides of ongoing agricultural intensification. He does this using our insectivores, the martins, swallows and swifts, as the most inspiring of 'canaries' in the global coal mine.