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The Conjuror's Bird: Amazon.co.uk: Davies, Martin: 9780340920534: Books

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The Conjuror's Bird Paperback – 2 Jan. 2006

by Martin Davies (Author)

4.2 262 ratings

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It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now, it's his career that is almost extinct.

Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist Joseph Banks.

It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated - and dangerous - than the search for a stuffed bird.

To solve the puzzle, he must uncover the identity of the amazing woman Banks loved - a woman who has disappeared from history as effectively as the specimen he is hunting.

A mixture of detection, romance and history, THE CONJUROR'S BIRD has all the makings of a word-of-mouth bestseller.

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Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date

2 Jan. 2006
Dimensions

15.4 x 23.2 x 2.3 cm
ISBN-10

034092053X
ISBN-13

978-0340920534
See all details

Product description

Review

'This book I loved on so many levels...the excitement of a great mystery...a truly fantastic book.' (Manly Daily (Sydney, Australia))

'A pacy confection of history, mystery and romance... a most engaging and unusual novel' (The Times)

'An exciting and absorbing debut novel.' (Sue Baker, Publishing News)

An enjoyable tale of love, loss and taxidermy . . . a cracking holiday read. (Observer)

A pacy confection of history, mystery and romance...Davies interweaves his complex narrative with energy and authority...a most engaging and unusual first novel. (The Times)

'Two gripping, intercut narratives... a lyricism that captures the joy of the natural world... a highly successful and informative entertainment' (Independent)

[an] absorbing historical detective story . . . a beautifully evoked narrative from the past (Guardian)

Ambitious and intriguing... part thriller, part love story, part quest, this is a hugely readable book. (Spectator)

'Ideal for book clubs, ideal too for any lover of commercial literary fiction. An exciting and absorbing debut novel from Davies.' (Publishing News)

'Poignant and beguiling... like all the best novels, it left me with a sense of having learned something.' (Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy)

'A poignancy that will aptly linger with you after you've turned the final page' (Lincolnshire Echo)

'Intriguing and cleverly constructed' (Choice)

"[A] gripping book of literary suspense. . . . Davies indulges in clever speculation about the bird's whereabouts and adds an appealing strain of romance surrounding the identity of Banks's mistress. . . . A captivating novel." (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

"Suspenseful, intriguing, and romantic, this is great entertainment and an excellent choice for book discussion groups; highly recommended." (Library Journal (starred review))

'Ambitious and intriguing... part thriller, part love story, part quest, this is a hugely readable book whose concerns linger in the mind... Davies' novel hints, unobtrusively but effectively, at many of the issues underlying man's urge to collect ornithological specimens, and also the uneasy relationship between science, business and the natural world.' (Andrew Taylor, Spectator)

"A gripping blend of history and conjecture, romance and detection...it consists of two parallel stories wrapped around the race to unravel one of natural history's most enduring puzzles. [An] elegantly crafted journey into the nature of loss and love, memory and history." (Canberra Times)

"This book I loved on so many levels. Firstly for a greater understanding of the life of Sir Joseph Banks...then for the excitement of a great mystery... A truly fantastic book full of three centuries of secrets and surprises." (Manly Daily)

Book Description

Here is a clever, warm, exciting and satisfying novel, spanning three centuries of secrets and surprises. The Conjuror's Bird will appeal to reading groups and general readers of all ages.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton; First Edition (2 Jan. 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 034092053X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0340920534
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.4 x 23.2 x 2.3 cm

Customer reviews:
4.2 262 ratings

About the author

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Martin Davies

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Martin Davies is a writer and media consultant based in the UK.

He is the author of nine novels, including international bestseller 'The Conjuror's Bird' which was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection, and which sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. 'The Unicorn Road' was chosen as one of The Times/WHSmith top paperbacks of the year, and 'Havana Sleeping' was shortlisted for an Historical Dagger award by the Crime Writers' Association. Martin is also the author of a series of mystery stories about Sherlock Holmes' housekeeper.

Martin Davies has travelled widely, including in the Middle East and India; substantial parts of 'The Unicorn Road' were written while travelling through Sicily, and his plan for 'The Conjuror's Bird' was put together on a trekking holiday in Greenland.

When circumstances allow, he chooses to write in cafes or coffee shops, and often works in longhand on first drafts.

Martin Davies' books have been translated into ten languages.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

262 global ratings

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Warmed and enriched

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 July 2016

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I had already read all Martin Davies' Mrs. Hudson books - which are now firm and frequent favourites - so I decided to try one of his wider ranging novels. Since The Conjurer's Bird dealt with Joseph Banks, who is one of my heroes, I chose this one. Martin Davies is a first class writer; his language and story-telling abilities are above criticism. Dual time-line novels can be tricky. One inevitably prefers one of the timelines and rather resents being dragged off on the other one, but Davies' characters are so likeable that the resentment doesn't last. And he is a gentle writer - kind to his readers. He doesn't drag his characters through appalling miseries - even when bad things happen, as bad things do, we are told enough to sympathise but not enough to suffer. The Bird is also a bit of real-life history. Davies has unearthed the facts around some strange events and woven a completely plausible tale around them. First class scholarship and first class writing, and a book that leaves you warmed and enriched.

8 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2023

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I very much enjoyed this story, which is a historical tale within a more modern one, with a bird connecting them both. I would have given it five stars except that I found the love story part, whilst important, a bit of a drag. BTW, Wikipedia will give you some more historical detail.

One person found this helpful

The best book I've read for ages

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 November 2008

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This is a wonderful book and I've been recommending it to so many people. It starts off with a fabulously titled first chapter and just gets better and better. The narrative is beautifully woven between two time frames, and the writer's style changes to suit the time as does the typeface. I adored both the modern day and the past-time stories. Emotionally intense, believable characters that I really cared about; wonderful finely-drawn descriptions... I LOVED this and plan on reading it again very soon. A keeper rather than a pass-it-on book.

2 people found this helpful

Strangely compelling, but a bit damp overall

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2007

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Summoned to the other side of the planet unexpectedly, my wife handed me this book, unbidden, as I lef the house in case I ran out of things to read on the plane. Since, in my haste, I had quite forgotten to pack any books at all I was grateful, in a round-about way, that she did.

That said, The Conjurer's Bird isn't my natural cup of tea. The first thing I tried (and failed) to fathom is what Martin Davies hoped to achieve - what literary demand he felt he might be filling - by writing it in the first place. The historical situation it chronicles is interesting enough, I grant - but might have been better served by straight populist history rather than historical fiction.

The novel's structure is unusual - the concurrent telling of a present day mystery (viz: whatever happened to the remains of the "Mysterious Bird of Ulieta", discovered in 1774 and last seen in 1915) and a historical, but at least partly fictional (exactly how fictional is unclear) love story concerning botanist Joseph Banks, set against the backdrop of the original discovery of said mysterious bird on Cook's second voyage to the Pacific. As this somewhat contorted synopsis demonstrates, even the conceptual scheme of this novel is a bit of a mouthful, liable to create indigestion if not treated carefully.

And indigestion is what hovers (but in fairness never ultimately comes about) throughout. As a contemporary detective mystery, it's hardly gripping ("will they or won't they find the stuffed brown bird?" just won't propel the heart rate, let's face it) and of the two strands of the story, this one is rather damp - I found the modern-day characters poorly drawn, inexpertly scripted and their plot clumsily exposed.

Which leaves the other strand, which to my mind Martin Davies handled far more deftly. So deftly, in fact, that it is difficult to credit that the same writer could be so fluid and so leaden in the same book. Davies certainly seemed to enjoy himself with Joseph Banks and his talented mistress and when a writer is in his element the task of reading his output is less of a chore. I found the continual hopping between the stories in a sort of "meanwhile back at the castle" fashion distracting, and had it not been for the need for longevity, Martin Davies might have been better advised to stick with the historical story and leave the silly dead-bird chase out altogether.

In the end a qualified thumbs up - I got to the end of it, after all - although each time I picked the book up I did find myself wondering why. If this sounds like your bag, though, I would recommend Iain Pears first: his books "An Instance of the Fingerpost" and (to a lesser extent) "A Dream of Scipio" do this sort of thing - historical fiction, multiple perspectives; concurrent time periods - much more engagingly.

Olly Buxton

One person found this helpful

Unusual subject matter

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 December 2012

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I really liked this book. The subject was very unusual but extremely interesting. Joseph Banks was a complex character and a man of his time. It is difficult for us to comprehend the social mores of the time so that his love could only be his mistress and not his wife. The end of the book was a bit unbelievable - that a stuffed bird had not only survived over 200 years but that Banks met up with its owner - but this is a small criticism of an excellent first novel.

A fascinating tale

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 June 2018

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The story is well-written and kept me wanting to know more all the way through. The juxtaposition of the two tales is handled with skill and I was undecided which side of the story I preferred most. A very good read. I know which bit of the Natural History Museum I’ll be going to first when I go next!

2 people found this helpful

What a delightful book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2009

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I can't find anything to criticise in this book. It's charmingly written and beautifully structured. Davies lays out his plot by dropping little mysteries along the way and I kept turning the pages until each one had been solved.

He has cleverly used a real person -- Joseph Banks -- and a real mystery bird, of which only one specimen was ever found, and woven a love story (or two) and a mystery story around a few facts.

One person found this helpful

An enjoyable read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 August 2013

Verified Purchase

The book is set in the present and two hundred years earlier, with the two stories running in parallel. It is partly a mystery (the present) and a love story (the past).
It was easy to get in to, undemanding and enjoyable.

Top reviews from other countries

Patty

A thoroughly enjoyable read

Reviewed in Canada on 24 March 2018

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I loved the idea behind this book - searching for a bird that is only known through one drawing from the1700s, that only ever had one specimen known to the western world. That Joseph Banks once owned it somehow made it even more interesting. I really liked the time cuts back and forth - the historical story, not about the bird but about people, evolved at such a different pace from the modern-day story and they complemented each other. It was the icing on the cake to find out that not only is the mystery at the base of the book real, but many of the small facts and twists were also based on actual historical documents. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

John T

Intriguing

Reviewed in Australia on 19 May 2020

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A great read taking a few facts known about Joseph Banks and weaving a story about a search about a missing bird specimen and an unfolding love story.

sb-lynn

Terrific page-turner.

Reviewed in the United States on 16 January 2006

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The Conjurer's Bird is a terrific book, and I had a lot of fun reading it. It took off from page one, and I read the book in two sittings.

Davies takes some true facts, and spins them into a wonderful fictional account of a search for a long missing bird, the "Mysterious Bird of Ulieta"

Summary, no spoilers:

The story starts out with natural history professor John (Fitz) Fitzgerald, working in his cluttered office. He gets a phone call from a woman from his past named Gabby. He meets up with Gabby and her new boyfriend, Karl Anderson, who makes an offer to Fitz of a substantial amount of money for his help in finding the missing "Mysterious Bird of Ulieta".

The bird was seen only once, in 1774 when Captain Cook led an expedition to the island of Ulieta in the South Pacific. The bird was preserved, but then lost. The recovery of this missing specimen had become a holy grail for naturalists and scientists.

Fitz refuses to help Karl, but then decides to search for the bird himself, with the aid of his tenant, Katya.

The story then takes off, with multiple parties searching for this mysterious bird, although we know that there may be motivations that haven't been disclosed.

The story is told in alternating chapters, first taking place in the present, and then going back to the times of Captain Cook, and naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, who was the last person known to have the bird.

Fitz and the others know that Banks is the key to the mystery, along with his mistress, the mysterious "Miss B".

Highly recommended, this book is a real page-turner with a satisfying ending. Well done.

12 people found this helpful

Linda M

Enjoyable & Interesting

Reviewed in Canada on 27 November 2018

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I did enjoy this novel. It's easy to read and interesting going back & forth from the present day to the 1770's and Cook's Expedition.

MEF

Very Interesting!

Reviewed in the United States on 4 October 2013

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I really enjoyed this book and found it fascinating so highly recommend. The book offers a clever plot and a good mystery, with bits of romance, history, and genealogy stirred in. It is actually two stories in one with a third theme running through it. First story is the modern day mystery with naturalist Fitzgerald's search for the long lost Ulieta Bird. The second is a Victorian romance of the naturalist Banks that originally had the bird. The third theme running through it is of Fitzgerald's grandfather's futile searching for the peacock of the Congo. The stories are linked and run parallel. Davies weaves the stories together seamlessly and the characters are very engaging. I really liked that the birds and some of the people were real and found myself stopping to read more about them on Wikipedia.

4 people found this helpful

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