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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this book, learning about the Ravens and Chris's exploits with Monin and Merlina. How wonderful to find a role which you enjoy and from being such an unruly child.
If you like history, Ravens and storytelling you will enjoy this book.
Am so looking forward to when I can go and visit the tower, Ravens and maybe even Chris.
If you like history, Ravens and storytelling you will enjoy this book.
Am so looking forward to when I can go and visit the tower, Ravens and maybe even Chris.
CW: The author is a member of the military, and specifically served in Norther Ireland during the Troubles. There are brief mentions of his service, very much in a positive light, and some less positive remarks about the IRA. I see why this was included, as the authors views his service in the military as synonymous with his service to his country as the Ravenmaster, but it's not necessary to the story and could be jarring to readers who have personal connections to Northern Ireland.
This was a very charming read. The authors adoration and interest in the birds, as well as the history of the Tower of London, shines through from the first page. His narration of the audiobook added to my enjoyment as it made his enthusiasm and passion shine even brighter.
I would recommend this to fans of Ravens, Anglophiles, and anyone who enjoys humorous stories about animals, this book has tons of those.
This was a very charming read. The authors adoration and interest in the birds, as well as the history of the Tower of London, shines through from the first page. His narration of the audiobook added to my enjoyment as it made his enthusiasm and passion shine even brighter.
I would recommend this to fans of Ravens, Anglophiles, and anyone who enjoys humorous stories about animals, this book has tons of those.
funny
informative
medium-paced
This was a fun read - Skaife is engaging and the book flows nicely. I was personally hoping for a little more raven content, but what was included was wonderful.
I’d be particularly interested to listed to the audiobook as this is narrated by the author.
Overall a good read - would recommend and I would have fairly broad appeal.
I’d be particularly interested to listed to the audiobook as this is narrated by the author.
Overall a good read - would recommend and I would have fairly broad appeal.
Charming memoir of the Ravenmaster of the Tower of London, the ravens in his care & the history of the castle.
Note: I started the hardcover but was called away to pick up a bat (flying not baseball or cricket) who had a spinal injury. Only a few pages in & I was hooked so, I downloaded the audiobook to accompany me on the long drive. I wish all my passengers were as well behaved as the bat and as entertaining as Mr. Skaife narrating his book.
🦇 The bat is now in BatWorld’s colony where she will get the care she needs for the rest of her life. Her mellow temperament makes her an excellent candidate to be an educational bat. 🦇
Note: I started the hardcover but was called away to pick up a bat (flying not baseball or cricket) who had a spinal injury. Only a few pages in & I was hooked so, I downloaded the audiobook to accompany me on the long drive. I wish all my passengers were as well behaved as the bat and as entertaining as Mr. Skaife narrating his book.
🦇 The bat is now in BatWorld’s colony where she will get the care she needs for the rest of her life. Her mellow temperament makes her an excellent candidate to be an educational bat. 🦇
Such an enjoyable book to read! This will be the perfect gift for someone who enjoys reading, but it's hard to figure out what they like. It's light, fun, and easy, with some history, some fascinating information about the ravens, and and a few lovely pictures. Honestly, that's the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars - I truly wish there were more pictures. I've seen some of the gorgeous ones on Twitter, and was hoping for more. However, his Twitter account is pretty neat, so it's well worth checking out in tandem with the book!
An utterly delightful memoir by the current Ravenmaster at The Tower of London. Skaife shares his journey to becoming the Ravenmaster, glimpses of day-to-day life with the ravens, and the legends and literary connections behind the ravens. I was entranced and completely taken into another world.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4
This book is a fun tour through author Chris Skaife's life as Ravenmaster of the Tower of London, with a bit of amateur ornithology, a dash of English history, brief side forays through legend and literature, a few stories of his own prior life as a British soldier, and even a ghost story or two.
Skaife says ravens live everywhere, but in North America that's far from true. In the USA, the Common Raven lives mainly west of the Rockies, upper New England, and in a small sliver down the Appalachians. They're absent from most of the eastern continental USA, so 2/3 of Americans have probably never seen a wild raven. They're much more widely distributed in Canada, and across Europe and northern Asia. (They don't normally occur in the southern hemisphere at all.) So as someone who lives on the Gulf Coast of North America, well outside their natural range, I felt like an outsider looking in. I had literally never seen a raven until I visited the Tower of London on a school trip in the late 1980s. But then, ravens are also almost absent from lower England in modern times, a victim of cultural prejudice, and in any event, almost no one interacts with ravens with the regularity and intimacy that Chris Skaife and his assistants do. So I guess we're all outsiders looking in, in that respect.
While examining ravens in literature and verse, I learned that Edgar Allen Poe said of his famous poem, “The Raven,” that it was a study on the philosophy of composition and that Poe, while pondering melancholy poetry, concluded that the death of a beautiful woman is “unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.” I threw up in my mouth a little and mentally cursed Poe for possibly having been the grandfather of an enduring obsession with dead women (most commonly violently dead and found naked) that permeates popular literature, television, movies today. But I digress.
Naturally I had to go follow Skaife on Facebook (Ravenmaster) and check out his TikToks (ravenology1). No doubt he's the most social-media-savvy Ravenmaster the Tower has ever had!
Audio Notes: Skaife narrates the book himself, and as he explains his job, you realize that he's a natural choice to narrate his own book. Giving public tours and telling “The Story” of the Tower of London on a daily basis is a big part of his job, so there's literally no one better qualified to narrate his own book. His narration is charmingly quirky, and it's a bit different if you're used to the polished, generic “BBC presenter” type of British accent we Americans more commonly hear in our audiobooks. Skaife has a downhome southeast England accent, including folksy features like “haitch” and “somethink/anythink,” and even “chimley” at one point. Also, the audiobook features a 30-minute interview with Skaife at the end, and you'll quickly see how naturally gregarious he is and how accustomed he is to telling stories about the Tower.
This book is a fun tour through author Chris Skaife's life as Ravenmaster of the Tower of London, with a bit of amateur ornithology, a dash of English history, brief side forays through legend and literature, a few stories of his own prior life as a British soldier, and even a ghost story or two.
Skaife says ravens live everywhere, but in North America that's far from true. In the USA, the Common Raven lives mainly west of the Rockies, upper New England, and in a small sliver down the Appalachians. They're absent from most of the eastern continental USA, so 2/3 of Americans have probably never seen a wild raven. They're much more widely distributed in Canada, and across Europe and northern Asia. (They don't normally occur in the southern hemisphere at all.) So as someone who lives on the Gulf Coast of North America, well outside their natural range, I felt like an outsider looking in. I had literally never seen a raven until I visited the Tower of London on a school trip in the late 1980s. But then, ravens are also almost absent from lower England in modern times, a victim of cultural prejudice, and in any event, almost no one interacts with ravens with the regularity and intimacy that Chris Skaife and his assistants do. So I guess we're all outsiders looking in, in that respect.
While examining ravens in literature and verse, I learned that Edgar Allen Poe said of his famous poem, “The Raven,” that it was a study on the philosophy of composition and that Poe, while pondering melancholy poetry, concluded that the death of a beautiful woman is “unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.” I threw up in my mouth a little and mentally cursed Poe for possibly having been the grandfather of an enduring obsession with dead women (most commonly violently dead and found naked) that permeates popular literature, television, movies today. But I digress.
Naturally I had to go follow Skaife on Facebook (Ravenmaster) and check out his TikToks (ravenology1). No doubt he's the most social-media-savvy Ravenmaster the Tower has ever had!
Audio Notes: Skaife narrates the book himself, and as he explains his job, you realize that he's a natural choice to narrate his own book. Giving public tours and telling “The Story” of the Tower of London on a daily basis is a big part of his job, so there's literally no one better qualified to narrate his own book. His narration is charmingly quirky, and it's a bit different if you're used to the polished, generic “BBC presenter” type of British accent we Americans more commonly hear in our audiobooks. Skaife has a downhome southeast England accent, including folksy features like “haitch” and “somethink/anythink,” and even “chimley” at one point. Also, the audiobook features a 30-minute interview with Skaife at the end, and you'll quickly see how naturally gregarious he is and how accustomed he is to telling stories about the Tower.