“Birdgirl” by Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig’s is a somewhat unusual name, but one which I strongly suspect will one day fairly soon become one of the ‘household’ variety. She is now 22 and is studying at St John’s College, Cambridge, but she wrote this memoir when she was only twenty with an extraordinary life of travel and achievement behind her. There are not many undergraduates who go to university with an honorary doctorate already in the bag, not to mention a social media following numbering hundreds of thousands. Will she go into politics perhaps? Or will she soon be gracing our screens as the new poster girl for BBC nature programmes, ready to slip into the role that David Attenborough must soon vacate. Another possibility would be a life as a more controversial activist, influencer and writer? All three and more are entirely plausible. I would not be surprised if her careers starts to soar in all manner of directions. She is precocious, but not annoyingly so, very talented, eloquent, photogenic, very bright and driven as much by principle as personal ambition. A mightily impressive young woman.

The book tells the story of her childhood and youth, much of which was devoted to serious birdwatching alongside her parents. They travelled every year to extraordinary places in pursuit of exotic bird species to tick off their lists. Much of the time they succeeded in seeing what they came to see, Mya-Rose also drinking in cultural experiences of many different kinds. The hardback version of this book is very much better to get your hands on than the paperback because it is illustrated, and that makes a huge difference in a book about birds. The family literally go to every corner of the globe, including Madagascar and Antarctica. They see Komodo dragons as well as all manner of birds, large and small.

She writes about all these safaris with terrific skill and verve, recounting her experiences thoughtfully and genuinely. It is her willingness to explain how she felt when birdwatching, as well as what she saw, that makes her memoir such a compelling read.

How quite Mya-Rose can reconcile all this extravagant air travel to out-of-the way locations with her avowed environmentalist convictions is never really tackled. Nor is she ever able to admit that she is extraordinarily privileged to have been born into a family that could afford to undertake all these extended trips. I suspect, being a young person of left-leaning views, she considers herself to be more oppressed than an oppressor in the culture wars because her mother is of Bangladeshi origin and also suffers from a serious mental health condition. Older readers will not be so convinced. Some may also wince at how open and honest her mother has allowed her to be when discussing mental health matters. But it is impossible to deny that it is her preparedness to discuss these very personal matters, including her shyness and periodic bouts of self-doubt, that make this so much more than a standard nature read. She is also very honest about some of the vile, racist online abuse she has had to put up with – truly repulsive stuff to chuck at one so young.

A very enjoyable and beautifully written book.