Birkhead returns to Bloomsbury with book on the Great Auk

Professor Tim Birkhead has returned to Bloomsbury with his new book The Great Auk: Its Life, Death and Afterlife, following a one-book hiatus at Viking. 

Publisher Jim Martin bought world English rights from Carrie Plitt at Felicity Bryan. The Great Auk: Its Life, Death and Afterlife will be published by Bloomsbury Sigma in March 2025.  

The book features “the largely untold story of the biology of one of the true icons of extinction” the publisher said. “Slaughtered mercilessly anywhere it tried to breed around the coasts of the North Atlantic for centuries, the Great Auk clung on until the middle of the 19th century. Following its extinction in 1844 a new and murky industry in eggs and stuffed specimens mushroomed, which persists largely in secret to this day.” 

Birkhead said: “This is a bird that has intrigued me for years. Although no biologist ever saw a Great Auk, my 50-year experience with auks has allowed me to reconstruct its extraordinary life. Moreover, through a chance occurrence in 2017 I was able to unravel the mystery of some priceless specimens that were thought to have been lost”. 

Martin added: “We were as keen to secure this book as a deep-diving auk snapping up mackerel. To publish a book on the Great Auk by the world’s leading seabird research scientist – and one who can also write brilliant reads for a trade audience, as shown with Bird Sense – is simply as good as it gets.”