Morning all,
Steve Clark wrote:
> G'day all
>
> Has anyone purchased the new Morecombe field guide?
> How about a few critical
> reviews. I have a birthday coming up and I could
> start dropping hints now if
> the book is well regarded.
I haven't been following the field guide debate, but
as Steve Clark has asked for a critical review of
Michael Morecombe's book, may I offer the following:
While working as a staff writer at Australian
Geographic last year (a mercifully short experience,
but that's another story), I was asked to look at
proofs of the above guide, as AG was interested in the
possibility of a joint publishing venture.
I could not recommend the book. At the risk of
sounding superior (I know many people have been
looking forward to this guide), this is again a
disappointment and another opportunity lost to produce
a worthy Australian field guide. There were two major
problems, both of which Peter Lansley refers to in a
forthcoming review for (I think) Australian Birding.
The first is that the colour reproductions are
disastrous - the blues in particular are far too
intense and substantially alter the "look" of many of
the birds, parrots particularly. This is a publishing
problem and can be fixed in subsequent editions with
more attention to detail.
The second problem is rather more intractable: with
respect, as an illustrator, Michael Morecombe makes a
very good photographer (which indeed he is). Anyone
who bought his coffee table book The Great Australian
Birdfinder back in the 80s knows this to be true. To
be fair, he has improved since then, but not enough to
compete with Nick Day, Peter Slater and Frank Knight
(and all of those books have their own problems).
There are some useful additions - for the first time,
birds from the Australian territories are added, for
example. This is a worthy addition but nothing that
shouldn't have been done long ago. I haven't had much
of an opportunity to examine the text so I won't pass
judgment there.
But it's the illustrations that really sink the ship.
I fear we're in a situation now where the Australian
field guide market is overcrowded; there will be no
new ventures for many years, only reprintings of the
already established "names", all in their own ways
deficient.
Lest I sound too harsh (those who can, do, those who
can't, review) let me add that Australia is a small
country with a small birding population. Australian
field guides typically sell well, but many are sold to
non-birders who simply want to know what they're
seeing around their garden. That part of the market
has now surely been satiated. Publishers will be less
willing to take risks on a new venture and will
inevitably cut corners to save on costs.
Finally, we should be measuring our field guides up
against the best in the world. Anyone who's seen the
latest British field guide or the Handbook to
Palaearctic Birds knows where the benchmark is. We
can, and should, do better. What a pity that
opportunity has once again been lost.
No doubt that won't stop many birders from getting
this field guide regardless - it's a new field guide
to Australian birds, and for many, that's enough. If I
have a suggestion on a better way to spend your money,
it's this: settle for one Australian field guide and
augment that with specialist texts on seabirds (volume
1 of HANZAB is the most expensive but by far the most
rewarding) and waders (for which one still can't go
past Hayman, Marchant and Prater's Shorebirds).
I rest my case.
Cheers
AS
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