LIKE the birds, we are creatures of sight and sound, not smells. Tune in, says author Simon Barnes, to “the soundtrack of planet Earth” and benefits, material and spiritual, will follow.

YOU might be forgiven for thinking that this is a book about natural history, particularly because each chapter has the title of a different animal or bird with the common English name followed by the zoological Latin one.

They say 80% of all books are sold at Christmas, and God knows they’re a good fall-back for a present. With that in mind we asked Michael Moynihan to combine the sports-and-Santa hats when it comes to the pick of this year’s sports books.