Viking swoops in on Tim Birkhead's bird book in four-way auction

Viking's new editorial director Tom Killingbeck has made his first acquisition at the publisher following a four-way bidding war for a "sweeping history" of birdlife and humankind by scientist and writer Tim Birkhead.

Killingbeck acquired world English rights to Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation by Tim Birkhead, in a four-way auction, from Felicity Bryan at Felicity Bryan Associates. It will be published in hardback in 2022.  

"A sweeping history of the relationship between birdlife and humankind over 12 millennia, Birds and Us explores everything from the birds deified and mummified by Ancient Egyptians to Renaissance experiments on woodpecker anatomy, from Victorian ornithologists’ taxonomical obsessions to the present fight to save endangered species and restore their habitats," the synopsis reads.

"It will also weave in vignettes from the author’s own life as a scientist, including his decades-long study of guillemots on the Welsh island of Skomer and far-flung expeditions to Neolithic caves and the Peruvian coast. His ambitious book is the culmination of a lifetime’s research and will show how birds shaped us, and how we shaped them."

Birkhead is an award winning author, scientist and Professor of Zoology at the University of Sheffield. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded the 2015 Eisenmann Medal by the Linnaean Society of New York for excellence in ornithology. His book Bird Sense: What it’s Like to be a Bird (Bloomsbury) was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Winton Prize for Science Books in 2013, and The Most Perfect Thing (Bloomsbury) was shortlisted for the same prize in 2016.

Birkhead said: "I have lived and breathed birds since I was a boy and I being able to turn my passion for birds and people into my job at the University of Sheffield has been extraordinary. I've travelled the world to study and watch birds, but I have taken almost as much pleasure in observing the way people from all walks of life engage with birds. Birds influence us all and they've done so throughout the course of human history and I'm thrilled to now be documenting those fascinating and enlightening connections. One of my aims is that by looking at how our relationships with birds have matured over time, that insight will provide the foresight that will help us preserve those birds we have left. I feel lucky to have teamed up with Tom Killingbeck and look forward to our working together."

Killigbeck said: "I’m so pleased to announce Birds and Us as my first acquisition at Viking. It’s exactly the kind of book I wanted to find for the list – an intoxicating mix of science, history and nature writing that defies categorisation and rapturously captures the wonder of the avian world. Tim’s passion for birdlife is palpable on every page, his experiences with birds around the world are enviable, and his underlying message – of our species’ increased disconnection from nature through time, and the need to renew our relationship with the animal world – is urgently necessary."