Watching For The Kingfisher

Ann draws many insights into the nature of prayer from her love of birdwatching, and images from the natural world and from scripture permeate her writing. Wit, warmth and economy of expression characterise her style.

From small beginnings as a self-published writer producing booklets in response to demand from people who attended her retreats or quiet days, Ann Lewin has gone on to be on of the most successful writers of prayers and reflective poetry. With the "Inspire" imprint closing in 2009, Canterbury Press welcomes this fine writer and is pleased to announce a new edition of Ann's bestselling book, "Watching for the Kingfisher", named after her most well known poem about prayer. Ann draws many insights into the nature of prayer from her love of birdwatching, and images from the natural world and from scripture permeate her writing. Wit, warmth and economy of expression characterise her style.

Lawrence Kilham begins this remarkable book with a simple premise: surely there are many people who aren't scientists who nevertheless take great satisfaction from observing nature and the creatures that inhabit it. Eschewing species lists and the charts-and-graphs approach of professional ornithologists and competitive birders, Kilham's On Watching Birds elegantly balances the aesthetic and humanistic with the scientific. The author offers a philosophy of embracing nature through discovery rather than a methodology for categorizing it. "Watch everything," Kilham advises the novice, for one may be surprised by what one sees, even when observing the most common of birds. His observations become part beautifully told story and part life-lesson, as the habits and rituals of cranes, crows, owls--even otters--reveal a rich counterlife of often unnoticed behavioral variation and personality in living nature. "Behavior watching," Kilham concludes, "not only strengthens my bonds with the beauty of nature, but also my empathy with living things." First published in 1988, this autobiographical account of a renowned naturalist's love affair with birds has already become a classic. Illustrated with Joan Waltermire's delicately rendered line drawings, On Watching Birds is now once again available to readers who wish to discover the simple pleasures of connecting with the natural world.

'Love is the meaning' is the phrase chosen by the mystic 14th century writer Julian of Norwich to encapsulate all that had been revealed to her in the series of visions that led her to write one of world's greatest spiritual books, her Revelations of Divine Love which continues to inspire countless readers today.Its everyday imagery and warm intimacy set it apart from other great spiritual classics. Ann Lewin uses its homely qualities to provide the basis for an exploration of our own experiences of the spiritual life, and as we search for answers to life's big questions:How can we hold fast to the truth of God's love in the face of suffering and disaster?Does prayer change anything?How can Julian help us to speak freshly about God to our world?What do we do when God seems far away and silent?Can we actually believe that 'all will be well' as Julian did?These and other questions are explored here.

A feast of material for the entire Christian year from popular retreat leader and spiritual writer Ann Lewin, including seasonal liturgies, prayers, worship ideas, retreat programmes and themed reflections.

A Black ecopoet observes the changing world from a high-rise window, “ever alert to affinities between the small and the vast, the fleeting and the cosmic” (James Gibbons, Hyperallergic). Award-winning poet Ed Roberson confronts the realities of an era in which the fate of humanity and the very survival of our planet are uncertain. Departing from the traditional nature poem, Roberson's work reclaims a much older tradition, drawing into poetry’s orbit what the physical and human sciences reveal about the state of a changing world. These poems test how far the lyric can go as an answer to our crisis, even calling into question poetic form itself. Reflections on the natural world and moments of personal interiority are interwoven with images of urbanscapes, environmental crises, and political instabilities. These poems speak life and truth to modernity in all its complexity. Throughout, Roberson takes up the ancient spiritual concern—the ephemerality of life—and gives us a new language to process the feeling of living in a century on the brink.

Call of the Kingfisher is the enchanting debut from composer and wildlife recordist, Nick Penny. This love letter to a short stretch of Northamptonshire’s River Nene celebrates all the wild things that live there, especially the kingfishers. Uniquely, it comes with bonus audio content to complement the text, accessed via QR codes. Nick has walked beside the river at Oundle for four decades. But for a whole year he gave the waterway all the time it asked for. The more attention he gave it, the more he saw the kingfishers and heard their high whistling calls. Set in a lovely but little-known part of England, Call of the Kingfisher relates a year by the river, the author’s experiences there and the different people he meets. Other strands are woven around the elusive feathered protagonist: explorations of local history and landscape, from Roman and Bronze Age sites to watermills and centuries-old stone churches; visits at different times and to different places in the valley; homages to naturalists who lived nearby; forest dawns and dusks listening to the precious song of nightingales. But the background tapestry is the sights and sounds, and greens and browns, of the riverbank, shot through with the blue and orange threads of a kingfisher’s glowing feathers. As a composer and wildlife recordist, Nick has a deep interest in sounds in the natural environment. He both uses the local landscape and wildlife sounds as inspiration, and brings fresh insights into the sounds of the countryside. The book includes access to a number of high-quality birdsong recordings made alongside the River Nene - audio soundbites of nature’s riches, from kingfishers and nightingales to owls and cuckoos. This is a book about the things that can be seen and heard when we approach nature with patience and curiosity. It celebrates people who have used that focus to help preserve wildlife and pass on their knowledge to future generations. Above all, Call of the Kingfisher serves as a call to appreciate what we’ve got, wherever we are, and to use our ears as much as our eyes when we experience the natural world.