Guests of Summer tells the story of the House Martins of a small Dutch village, and the historic and contemporary connectedness of lives, both of birds and people. The journey begins from the comfort of a chair in Piersma’s garden. Intrigued by the martins nesting on his house and the other swallow-like birds in the village, he begins to explore what it is like to be a House Martin. In doing this, Piersma weaves a tapestry that connects Anglo-Saxon migrations, Shakespeare’s writings, political upheaval in the Congo, climate change and the big and frightening downsides of ongoing agricultural intensification. He does this using our aerial insectivores, the martins, swallows and swifts, as the most inspiring of canaries in the global coal mine.
