The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife or to savour in winter

or to savour in winter before a roaring fire

Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk or James Rebanks' A Shepherd's Life

Discover life on a millimetric scale

the wild thyme on limestone hills

The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife or to savour in winterThe life, death and afterlife of one of the true icons of extinction, the Great Auk The great auk was a flightless, goose sized bird superbly adapted for life at sea. Fat, flush with feathers and easy to capture, the birds were in trouble whenever sailors visited their once remote breeding colonies. Places like Funk Island, off north east Newfoundland, became scenes of unimaginable slaughter, with birds killed in their millions. By 1800 the auks of