The Curious Life of the Cuckoo

In this beautifully illustrated small format hardback, John Lewis-Stempel delves into the cuckoo’s unique behaviour and captivating role in our cultural imagination, in folklore, myth, literature and music, turning his exquisite prose to one of the strangest tales of the countryside.
—
Is there any bird more mysterious than the cuckoo?

It is invariably heard, and not seen. And if seen, it is mistaken for a sharp-winged hawk. The female cuckoo – by a trick that borders on alchemy – is able to disguise its egg as another’s. In Greek myth the god Zeus assumed the form of a cuckoo to seduce Hera.

But we forgive the cuckoo its con-artistry, because it is the true herald of spring. It is the bird that uplifts our wintered hearts, with that first two-note ‘cuk-koo’ unmistakable as it sounds across the country.

In The Curious Life of the Cuckoo, John Lewis-Stempel explains one of nature’s greatest enigmas in vivid, lyrical prose, and celebrates this iconic bird.