The White Badger

by Gordon Burness, Gary Cliffe

The white badger: A true story (A carousel book) Cliffe, Gary

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 1971

Reviews

[Phil]

A simply written account of a young boy's experiences badger watching with his brother and a local wildlife enthusiast, Gordon Burness. They discover an albino badger and over the coming months, photograph and film the animal as well as recording its behaviour.

Oddly, Burness claims that Gary, the 11-year-old boy, is the one who told the story and that Burness just wrote down Gary's words. The book doesn't sound remotely like the work of an 11-year-old, so I can only assume the book was originally written for children, and Burness thought it would be more popular with them if they thought it had been written by a child their own age. I can see it being very popular with children around that age in the 1970s, although I think today's children might find it less interesting.

A gentle, happy, easy-to-read story about a very special animal, illustrated with the author's photographs. A window into 1970s wildlife watching, recommended for anyone who likes real stories about British animals.

[Dark-Draco]

This is one of those books that I would never have searched out for myself, but once it had fallen into my hands, I just had to read it. It's simply written - the tale of a young boy and his brother's first foray's into nature watching, and the amazing albino badger, Snowball, that they encounter. There's some nice photos, which look a bit dated now, but still show what amateurs can take with a bit of ingenuity. A good little read that was worth picking up.