The Soaring Life of the Lark is by John Lewis-Stempel, a fourth-generation farmer in the western part of England, who is also, according to The Times, “Britain’s finest living nature writer.” This book is a little gem. It combines information about the lark’s physical appearance, habitat, behavior, flight patterns, and song, with a fine discussion of the skylark’s significance to British culture and its need for conservation. Samples of poetry about the lark are abundant throughout, and the illustrations are lovely.

One chapter of particular interest to me was a discussion of the lark on the battlefields of World War I, where it continued its “soaring song” even in the height of the worse battles. Lewis-Stempel writes: “The bird even stayed put on day one of the Somme…The correspondent for The Times informed readers that the skylarks could be heard singing during the battle ‘whenever there was a lull in the almost incessant fire.’ “ Sergeant Leslie Coulson wrote about the lark during that same battle:

From death that hurtles by
I crouch in the trench day-long,
But up to a cloudless sky
From the ground where our dead men lie
A brown lark soars in song.
Through the tortured air,
Rent by the shrapnel’s flare,
Over the troubleless dead he carols his fill,
And I thank the gods that the birds are
beautiful still.

Like so many other WWI poets, Coulson did not live to see his poem published: he died “charging the German line at Le Transloy on the Somme in October 1916.” (pp. 52-53)

At 90 pages, this book could be read in one sitting, but I wouldn’t recommend doing so. ( )