"A Guide to the Birds of East Africa"

[fiefoe]

Maybe the raison d'être of gentleman's clubs is really to aid novelists. Without them and all the betting that goes on there, where would Verne, Wodehouse, most regency authors and now Nicholas Drayson be?

Even with plenty of amiable digressions that include a discussion on the thorny problem of common bird name unification, this novel clocks in at a slight 202 pages. The beginning is as unassuming as Mr. Malik (with his comb-over), but once the week-long bird-watching contest gets under way, each day's progress is a quiet thrill. Best tip: "When a big storm breaks on the Kenya coast one of the very best places to see birds is the Nairobi municipal sewage works."