The Curious Life of the Cuckoo

Read by: Roy McMillan

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

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At a Glance

Format
Digital Audiobook

Duration
01:35.59

Published: 6th March 2025

Digital Audiobook

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Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

'Britain's finest living nature writer' - The Times