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Twitching by numbers: Twenty-four years of chasing rare birds around Britain and Ireland
Original edition ( see note below ).
The story starts in 1999 just after my 32nd Birthday and I've just ended my 18-year love affair with watching private jets around the world.
I met an individual at work who introduced me into his hardcore world of Birdwatching called "Twitching".
The hobby takes over my life and I end up leaving my first wife, with the house and as I find myself living back with my mum.
The book takes you through the various twitching adventures in the British Isles and aspects of my private life.
During the story I get selected for a BBC documentary called " A very British Obsession" and formed a successful WhatsApp group called “Casual Twitchers”.
Note
This was my first book and I didn't expect to get complaints about my single life between 2000 to 2002 (Chapter 2 to 4). I decided to remove the offending passages and rewrite these early years and republish as "Twitching by A birder's hectic life as he chases rare species across Britain and Ireland".
Some people carried on buying the original edition from Amazon as the marketplace stays open for returns forever. I cannot change this situation and decided to allow both editions to remain on sale. I prefer the latest edition. It's more appropriate for a younger audience or women to read. The sections rewritten/removed don't harm the flow of the story one bit.
To prevent confusion over editions, I've priced the first edition at £24.93 and revised edition at £18.95
Whichever one you buy, I hope you enjoy my twenty four year life story.
The story starts in 1999 just after my 32nd Birthday and I've just ended my 18-year love affair with watching private jets around the world.
I met an individual at work who introduced me into his hardcore world of Birdwatching called "Twitching".
The hobby takes over my life and I end up leaving my first wife, with the house and as I find myself living back with my mum.
The book takes you through the various twitching adventures in the British Isles and aspects of my private life.
During the story I get selected for a BBC documentary called " A very British Obsession" and formed a successful WhatsApp group called “Casual Twitchers”.
Note
This was my first book and I didn't expect to get complaints about my single life between 2000 to 2002 (Chapter 2 to 4). I decided to remove the offending passages and rewrite these early years and republish as "Twitching by A birder's hectic life as he chases rare species across Britain and Ireland".
Some people carried on buying the original edition from Amazon as the marketplace stays open for returns forever. I cannot change this situation and decided to allow both editions to remain on sale. I prefer the latest edition. It's more appropriate for a younger audience or women to read. The sections rewritten/removed don't harm the flow of the story one bit.
To prevent confusion over editions, I've priced the first edition at £24.93 and revised edition at £18.95
Whichever one you buy, I hope you enjoy my twenty four year life story.
268 pages, Paperback
Published December 21, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 26, 2023
It's difficult to know quite what to say about Garry's account of his time pursuing rare birds in Britain, sometimes Ireland and occasionally further afield. I read it quite happily over two days but would still have to conclude it's a flawed work which reflects many of the idiosyncrasies of the author (and illustrator).
Garry is a familiar figure among keen UK birders as he's not shy of seeking publicity. As someone in that group I expected a book by Garry to be not be a great literary work but have an interesting tale to tell about lots of adventures in pursuit of rarities. And that's essentially what you get, but with a number of very important caveats.
Firstly, as documented elsewhere, this first edition includes some very unenlightened views of women and gay men. Garry rewrote the book to address the criticism faced. The revised one is currently £20 on Amazon and this one is £3.53, I bought this version knowing the issues and basically having seen the offensive material quoted on Twitter so it made little odds to me.
Secondly notwithstanding the nature of the above content the book is also spoiled by a lack of effective proof reading. It's littered with spelling mistakes, sentences that don't scan and people and places referred to by the wrong name. Garry apparently paid someone to do a sub-editor job on this book but you really wouldn't know.
Thirdly a lot of Garry's social media eccentricities come through in the book. This includes an obsession with how cheaply each trip has been made including detailed spend breakdowns, quoting phone numbers and even ISBN numbers that aren't relevant to the narrative. This makes it a difficult read at times, and needlessly given the core statistics are included at the end of each chapter and in an appendix.
Fourthly there's a lot of unnecessary detail. This includes among other things, the staffing structure of every accountancy team Garry works for (and there are several over the life of the book), his experiences playing Pokemon Go, extensive renovations of his former home and a detailed account of issues with his sphincter and latterly his prostate.
Finally he hands over to a number of guest writers who see birds that Garry himself fails to see, including in some instances birds he never even tried to see due to work commitments. This doesn't really add anything to the book as it's not his story in any way. An unfortunate consequence is that the limitations of Garry's writing style are highlighted by these all being better crafted accounts.
A lot of people who hadn't read the book joined a social media pile on about the sexism in this book, saying they would have read it but wouldn't in protest. They now have a second version they can buy. The fact remains however that the only people who should read either edition of this book are keen twitchers, as otherwise the limitations of it would be off-putting to a casual reader in any case.
Garry is a familiar figure among keen UK birders as he's not shy of seeking publicity. As someone in that group I expected a book by Garry to be not be a great literary work but have an interesting tale to tell about lots of adventures in pursuit of rarities. And that's essentially what you get, but with a number of very important caveats.
Firstly, as documented elsewhere, this first edition includes some very unenlightened views of women and gay men. Garry rewrote the book to address the criticism faced. The revised one is currently £20 on Amazon and this one is £3.53, I bought this version knowing the issues and basically having seen the offensive material quoted on Twitter so it made little odds to me.
Secondly notwithstanding the nature of the above content the book is also spoiled by a lack of effective proof reading. It's littered with spelling mistakes, sentences that don't scan and people and places referred to by the wrong name. Garry apparently paid someone to do a sub-editor job on this book but you really wouldn't know.
Thirdly a lot of Garry's social media eccentricities come through in the book. This includes an obsession with how cheaply each trip has been made including detailed spend breakdowns, quoting phone numbers and even ISBN numbers that aren't relevant to the narrative. This makes it a difficult read at times, and needlessly given the core statistics are included at the end of each chapter and in an appendix.
Fourthly there's a lot of unnecessary detail. This includes among other things, the staffing structure of every accountancy team Garry works for (and there are several over the life of the book), his experiences playing Pokemon Go, extensive renovations of his former home and a detailed account of issues with his sphincter and latterly his prostate.
Finally he hands over to a number of guest writers who see birds that Garry himself fails to see, including in some instances birds he never even tried to see due to work commitments. This doesn't really add anything to the book as it's not his story in any way. An unfortunate consequence is that the limitations of Garry's writing style are highlighted by these all being better crafted accounts.
A lot of people who hadn't read the book joined a social media pile on about the sexism in this book, saying they would have read it but wouldn't in protest. They now have a second version they can buy. The fact remains however that the only people who should read either edition of this book are keen twitchers, as otherwise the limitations of it would be off-putting to a casual reader in any case.
Displaying 1 of 1 review