A Single Swallow

Clare's extraordinary and mesmerising odyssey following the migration of the swallow from South Africa to South Wales

Annabel Goldie, Herald

His eye for detail and his elegant pen give flavour of each country he crosses: great veldt and high plateaux, Congo's "green vastness", the "sandy seas" of the Sahel and, finally, the fertile plain of the north African coast

The Economist

A gifted and lyrical travel writer

Financial Times

The author deploys some fine lyrical writing and a gift for inventive, unexpected metaphor ... Clare's other great asset is his brave, modern, multicultural and open-hearted approach to travel itself

Mark Cocker, Guardian

Clare has produced an enthusiastic, often elegiac, chronicle of his encounters with the swallows

Brian Schofield, The Sunday Times

Fizzingly entertaining. His own prose has something of their flight: daring, sharp-edged, fast-moving, graceful, full of surprises. This is a great adventure, thrillingly realised

Tom Fort, Literary Review

The resulting book, travel writing at its very best, is enthralling, passionate, hair-raising, quirky, hilarious, informative, occasionally mad and utterly, utterly brilliant... irresistible stuff.

Val Hennessy, Daily Mail

Horatio Clare pays tribute to the extraordinary migratory journeys of the swallow...a book that combines travel with natural history

Metro

Remarkably insightful and entertaining, with Clare proving himself to be the most enthusiastic, open-minded, intelligent and incorrigibly romantic of travellers

Mail on Sunday

It's graphically done, making me feel I was with him all the way

The Sunday Telegraph, Seven Magazine

Clare is engaging and makes a convincing case for the futility of borders

Philip Womack, Daily Telegraph

An exciting book, and often very moving

Susan Hill, The Lady

This is a book of rare lyrical beauty

Brian Maye, Irish Times

His descriptive prose is faultlessly evocative

Daily Mail