Reissue of J. A. Baker's excellent classic work on British nature. Despite the association of the peregrine falcon with the wild, remote areas of the British Isles, "The Peregrine" is set on the flat salt marshes of the Essex coast, where J. A. Baker spent a long winter observing and writing about his highland visitors - the peregrines who winter hunt the vast flocks of pigeons and waterfowl that share the desolate landscape with them.

Includes the original journals from which "The Peregrine" was written and the companion volume "The Hill of Summer," making a beautiful anthology of lyrical nature writing at its best. Notable figures such as Richard Mabey, Robert Macfarlane, Ted Hughes, and Andrew Motion have cited this work as one of the most important books of 20th-century nature writing. Bestselling author Mark Cocker has written an introduction about the importance of Baker, his works, and the journals - creating the necessary volume of Baker's works.

Documents, maps, and letters have recently come to light that offer more insights into J. A. Baker's history. Contemporaries, particularly from his time at school in Chelmsford, have provided information, recalling a school friend who apparently made an impression on his generation.

Among the fragments of letters to Baker was one from a reader praising a piece he wrote in 1971 for RSPB Birds magazine. Apart from an article on peregrines he wrote for the Essex Bird Report, this article - titled "On the Essex Coast" - appears to be his only other published piece of writing, and, with the RSPB's agreement, it was included in this updated new edition of Baker's remarkable work.