Heather Angel (1) (1941–)

This slim book of panda facts and photography might as well have been titled: The Secret LIfe of the Giant Panda. In pictures and text, pandas are revealed as playful, curious, affectionate and solitary creatures in their life in the wilds of China. Heather Angel has done a magnificent job of capturing the elusive panda in her photography that illustrates this book. My favorite picture, on page 51, is that of a young panda cub sliding on its back down an icy slope in utter abandon.

Love baby show more animals? Love wildlife? Care about these endangered animals? If I could have only one book on pandas (out of the several in my library) this would be the one. show less

This is a very attractive book and, as you would expect from Heather Angel, has stunning photography. The text, while interesting, is a bit more pedestrian. The book is a ‘celebration of China’s wilder areas’ and deals with plants, animals and landscapes. The first introductory chapter gives some background about the environment, population, development and ecotourism in China, then the remaining chapters deal with the main habitats: forests, wetland, deserts and grasslands, mountains show more and coastlands. The main text is interspersed with special spreads on topics such as ‘Plant hunters’, ‘Medicinal plants’, ‘Nature in Chinese art’ etc, with text on one page and a montage of small photos opposite.

Although there is a map in the introduction which shows the provinces and autonomous regions (with some spelling variations to the names used in the text) I felt it would have been useful to have more maps within the text to help locate some of the mountain ranges, nature reserves etc mentioned in the text. The text mainly talked about what plants and animals were found in each type of habitat without much other information, so it didn’t make particularly exciting reading. In fact, as far as I was concerned, the most interesting chapter was the one at the end, where Heather Angel talks about some of the logistics of her trips to China to undertake the photography for the book. show less

Masterly collection of photographs with intelligent commentary on the biology of puffins and their habitats. My pleasure in the book would be much enhanced by a hardcover; I particularly object to double page spreads across 'perfect' binding.

Outstanding photography, with some very interesting notes to accompany the photos.