This coming week sees the culmination of a decade of writing and photography work by Edin for her latest book, Birdlands, published by Penguin Random House. It has been quite a prolonged journey since the release of The Brilliance of Birds with COVID related delays, so it is exciting to at last see the book in final form. It is hard to fully appreciate the amount of time and work that Edin has put into this project without the insight of sharing the journey with her from conception to publication (all while completing a PhD!).

The latest edition of New Zealand Geographic includes an interview and preview under the title I am Awed which gives a good insight.

Edin’s main contribution to The Brilliance of Birds was her photography but the afterword she penned for that book hinted at her emotive writing skills, a talent she has inherited from her mother. Birdlands takes it to the next level combining her photographic images with word painted images of the emotions they evoke. Having been lucky to share some of these experiences with Edin, all I can say is that I envy her ability to document things so well in images and words – her words trigger my memories beyond what my photos alone can do. My abilities are purely visual which makes me feel a bit like an amputee limping through the world.

While fully acknowledging my bias as a proud father, I can highly recommend Birdlands as a worthy addition to your library or gift for a bird person in your life. You can preorder online (the link gives access to a great preview of the book) or drop into your favourite bookshop from the Tuesday 6 October 2026.

The photo of Edin was with my iPhone 14 Pro. We caught up with her briefly at Waipu Cove when we were returning from Northland and she had just been over to Australia to speak at a Nikon event and been given a early advance copy by a representative of the publisher there.