Books about birds and addiction

I have always thought of myself as someone who was not particularly interested in birds. I say 'always'. but it probably dates back to when I was nine, we moved house, out of the city and into the country, and I started at a new school. Each child in the class undertook a 'project', a scrapbook of words and pictures about a subject they found interesting. "Do you know what you are interested in?" asked the teacher. "Lots of people do birds." I was not, in this unfamiliar territory, about to stick my neck out and say that actually, I was currently very interested in antique Baccarat glass paperweights, so I said birds would be fine. In fact I was too short-sighted to see most birds, but it didn't matter because all you had to do was copy out chunks from the Observer's Book of Birds, but the process convinced me that I was Not Interested in birds. If things have changed since then, blame the puffins (the perfect gateway bird).

( Amy Liptrot: The Outrun )

( Adam Nicolson: The Seabird's Cry )