We're delighted to announce that The Red Canary has won the Consul Cremer Prize for outstanding achievements in aviculture! Takes a small episode from history and draws a surprisingly important lesson from it, in an elegant and diverting way.SUNDAY TELEGRAPH His grasp of the science involved is to be expected from a professor of behaviour and evolution. What is more surprising is his capacity to make it not just comprehensible but fascinating, but makinghis own genetic cross of science, philosophy, history, sociology and narrative.NEW STATESMAN Tim Birkhead's book would be worth the cover price for itsaccount of this extraordinary vanished subculture alone, but that's really just the historical setting for a fascinating, in some ways even thrilling, storyTHE SCOTSMAN Books are just in and publicity is going well on this title,with reviews already confirmed in TIME OUT, NEW SCIENTIST, NATURE. The author has also written an article for THE THES. The new Dana Centre at the Science Museum are very interested in doing an event when they open in November andI have just confirmed an event at the Royal Institution for 16 September. The author is also attending the Edinburgh Festival on 22 August Advance quotes: Rich in historical detail, studded with curious characters-some of themhuman-and brimming with scientific insights, reads like a fine novel.Matt Ridley Most engagingly Tim Birkhead reveals how the new world of Mendelian genetics allowed canary fanciers to dream of red canaries.'Jim Watson author of TheDouble Helix 'Biological scholarship, social history and biography merge deftly in this marvellously illuminating study of the forgotten but crucial roleplayed by the humble canary and some of its admirers in the development of genetic and behavioural science.'Nigel Collar, BirdLife International. 'In RedCanary Tim Birkhead teases out in a refined and deceptively simple style a complex tale of Europe's early obsession with caged songbirds; and in particular the dreams of two German breeders to create the world's first genetically engineered bird. Into a narrative of avian science and genetics he is able toweave with equal grace and authority accounts of Renaissance Art, Mozart opera, Spain's imperial adventures in the New World, the Huguenot persecutions and a large slice of modern European history. The result is popular science atits very best - a perfect blend of exactness and superb entertainment.... popular science at its very best--a perfect blend of exactness and superb entertainment.Mark Cocker author of Birders and Birds Britannica 'From the quest for a red canary, Tim Birkhead weaves deftly through genetic engineering, Nazi science, painting, music, exploration, class conflict, animal rights and much more. The detective story is gripping, the science authoritative. A treat,whatever your interests.'Helena Cronin, author of The Ant and the Peacock. This fascinating story is beautifully told by a master bird man and reads like a biological allegory for our times-genes and environment woven together toproduce a successful outcome. - Robert Trivers, RutgersUniversity, author of Natural Selection and Social Theory 'A gem of scientific exposition for thelay reader, In which central ideas from genetics and evolution slip easily into the Mind along with the plot. A fascinating book and a real pleasure to read.'Ian Newton, Author of Finches; Monks Wood This tale of scientific research, intuition and determination runs from medieval bird-lore to the world ofVictorian bird breeding and beyond, all skillfully woven with the struggle to create new kinds of canary... an intriguing and unusual story about genetics-with all its false starts, dashed hopes and achievements-that gives these attractive little birds their moment in history.Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place
