Call of the Kingfisher

By: Nick Penny

Narrated by: Nick Penny

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Nick Penny (P)2024 Nick Penny

Critic reviews

“All writers want the reader to see through their eyes, but few succeed in making them hear through their ears as successfully as Nick Penny… Very special.” Jamie Blackett in Country Life

"Penny’s detailed observations and philosophical and historical musings fill this gentle book which seems to walk at its own pace through the gradually changing seasons" - David Callahan, Birdwatch Magazine

"An odyssey of simple joy, filled with historical facts and stories, where the writer makes us feel part of the journey. It’s like strolling the riverbank with a friend - and is a timely reminder that regular paths walked can lead to irregular and surprising encounters" - Ceri Levy, Caught by the River