Curl up with a great nature book this winter and you’ll be all ready to stride into spring

THE short daylight hours of the Christmas holidays and of winter in general offer the opportunity for those who enjoy the outdoor world to read up on the finer details of natural history and be replete with knowledge and curiosity when the world reopens to welcome a new spring.

Over recent decades, popular books on natural history have become ever more informative and beautiful. The opportunities to learn were never more seductively presented. And such books make practical as well as pleasurable gifts for the amateur and the aficionado alike.

Bird books, field guides and coffee-table compendiums have led the way, and this year some very worthwhile works have come on the market, amongst them The Birds of Ireland, A Field Guide, published by Collins Press of Cork, written by Corkman Jim Wilson and photographed by Mark Carmody. Collins Press has been outstanding in producing volume after volume of high-quality, eye-catching, informative and beautifully produced works on natural history.