British Thrushes.
by Eric Simms
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine
- Seller
-
Scarborough , North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
In the original dustsheet. Green cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. A fine copy; pp. 304; b/w photographs, line-drawings, maps & diagrams. Green hard-back boards fine, unmarked. Contents clean and tight, pages crisp, no inscriptions or other marks. A fine copy. Bibliographic note: whilst not a particularly rare book, the majority of copies are faded to a greater or lesser extent and fine bright, un-faded copies are a rarity.
Eric Arthur Simms, DFC (24 August 1921 – 1 March 2009) was an English ornithologist, naturalist,
writer, sound recordist, broadcaster and conservationist, as well as a decorated wartime Bomber Command pilot/ bomb-aimer.
He was born on 24 August 1921, the youngest of three brothers, in London, where his father was head gardener at the private gardens in Ladbroke Square.
He won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School and in 1939 began to read history at Merton College, Oxford, where he also took up bird ringing and joined the University Air Squadron, and, without completing his studies, was sent for aircrew training in Canada and the United States in 1941. He was called up, joining the Royal Air Force in 1941 and by 1943 was a Leading Aircraftman, and was then commissioned as a pilot officer on probation in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 19 March 1943, serving as a bomb aimer and second pilot in Lancaster bombers, in which he flew 27 raids over Germany. On 14 November 1944 he was awarded Distinguished Flying Cross, the citation praising his "skill and determination which have been an inspiration to the crews with which he flies" and a "complete disregard for danger in the face of the heaviest enemy defences".
After demobilisation, he worked as a teacher in Warwickshire, and served on the research committee of the West Midland Bird Club.
He then worked for the BBC, initially as a wildlife sound recordist, before making more than 7,000 radio broadcasts and hundreds of television appearances. He was a passionate believer in bringing natural history to a wider audience, and was a resident naturalist at the BBC. He is credited with starting the Countryside radio programme in 1952. As a guest on Desert Island Discs in 1976, one of his eight choices was a recording of a blackbird he had made near his London home.
Simms also appeared in Sir John Betjeman's 1973 TV documentary Metro-land, about the Metropolitan Railway line running northwest out of London. He was featured bird watching in Gladstone Park, near to his home in Dollis Hill.
In 1980 he and his wife Thelma (who was Section Officer Thelma Jackson, WAAF, when they married) retired to South Witham, near Grantham, Lincolnshire. He died on 1 March 2009. Thelma had died in 2001. They had a daughter and a son, Amanda and David, and four granddaughters.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Martin Frost (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- FB3555 /19
- Title
- British Thrushes.
- Author
- Eric Simms
- Format/Binding
- Cloth binding
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Collins.
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1978
- Size
- 16 x23 x3cm
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
Terms of Sale
Martin Frost
About the Seller
Martin Frost
About Martin Frost
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
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