Two Gulls and a Girl, by Roxanne

[Jill]

Roxanne's seagull survey has now been made into a book!

For those who don't know, Roxanne is my 11 year old daughter and a child completely obsessed by nature. Even before she could walk she was down there, on her belly, scrutinising the creepy crawlies, or up there, in her high chair, peering intently at any fly which might land on her table. Even before she had heard of Gerald Durrell she was emulating him with a series of "pets" ranging from grasshoppers and beetles through to toads and a crayfish. And snails 

In her eighth year Roxanne won the RSPB's nature diary competition in the 8 to 12 year old category. One of the judges commented on her ability to tell a story, and this is something which has also been remarked upon by the man who wrote the foreword to her book, Richard Williamson. (Richard is the son of Henry Tarka-the-Otter Williamson, and was, for more than 20 years, the warden of one of England's first nature reserves. He is also an author in his own right).

As regular IBN forumers will know, in the spring of 2008 Roxanne embarked upon an ambitious study of a yellow-legged seagull colony on one of the island's in the Mar Menor (in the region of Murcia). As part of the project she "rescued" (or kidnapped) one newborn gull chick and a gull's egg, and these were brought aboard the "research vessel" - our floating home - and were successfully hand reared. Even after they could fly and could feed themselves the young gulls continued to visit their surrogate mum.

Anyone who has not encountered Roxanne  or read parts of her survey will probably imagine that this is a childish work, of no real interest to naturalists, but this is not the case. Richard Williamson has commented on the fact that the study, and the story, would be remarkable even if it were not written by a ten year old.

Two Gulls and a Girl  is available, by order, from any bookshop - including Spanish bookshops, I suppose, if you give them the details. (Author name: Roxanne Schinas. Publisher: Imperator Publishing. The ISBN is 978-0-9560722-0-7.)

It is also available from Amazon UK or Amazon US. (If you use those links we get a referral fee, without it costing you any more than usual.)

Perhaps Clive will add it to the Iberia Nature Bookshop, one day...

If you want to know more about the book, there is some blurb here.

While I am here I would like to thank all those forumers who have encouraged Roxanne, answering her questions and helping to identify her never ending chain of new discoveries. It has been a while since she posted anything "in her own write", but she is still an avid reader of the wildlife pages. Typing is not her forte, and so when she has a question she generally prefers to dictate things to me.

Jill
Roxanne's PA, Secretary, Assistant Naturalist, and General Dogsbody.

[indalo]

Congratulations for this job, Roxanne.

I´ll look for it in libraries.

Regards

Jss

[tonyninfas]

Well done, Roxanne !!

[Clive]

And here it is.... Well done Roxanne and all at the Yacht Mollymawk!



I have nobbled the code of the above link so that any referral fees go to the Mollymawkers...... remember you don't pay more by getting the book through this link....

I see that the book is not available for now but that doesn't stop you ordering it......

[Jill]

Hi Clive,

That was clever! I reckon that even Caesar would be impressed.

The book is supposed to be available now... but I guess the word hasn't yet travelled from the publisher to the bods at Amazon.

(Please don't feel that you need to divert the referral fees to the Mollymawk Travel Fund. Iberia Nature Forum needs funds too!)

[Clive]

Well.....

Have you got copies of the book with you?

I would rather buy direct and send you the money.... You can post the book..... I am sure the ships tech has a paypal account or something.... failing that cash in the post or something....

1 order from Clive at Wildside holidays for his library please....

PM me or email me to work out the details...

[indalo]

Really, I prefer also to buy my book directly from the forum.... or directly by you, Roxanne and Jill.

Let me know the total ammount (shipping included)  to send you the money before packiging it to me to the peninsula.

Jss

 

Roxanne, if you type me some letters of your own hand,around what is YOUR book talking about (an introduction by/of yourself) I´ll make a post in your name to my divulgation mail-list (300 direct mail adresses and more than a thousand of indirect ones).

[Jill]

Hola Jesús

Roxanne is asleep in bed - as I should be too - but I will show her your message tomorrow morning. Thank-you.

Caesar is working on the idea of selling copies of the book directly... I will be in touch.

Perhaps you would like to translate it into Spanish

[nick]

This is wonderful news Roxanne. You've always impressed us here, and now you've taken a step towards becoming a professional naturalist. I'm sure you've got a very interersing life ahead. I'll also be buying your book.

Well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nick

[Jill]

For as long as we are holed up in Melilla it is possible for people to order Two Gulls and a Girl directly from us - and, as Clive points out, this puts more money in the kitty and doesn't cost the buyer any more.

The book price is £12.95 (or 15.95 €), and shipping to Spain costs £2.88 (or 3.36 €).
Thus the total cost would be £15.83 (or 19.31 €).

You can pay in either currency, using PayPal. (PayPal will charge us a bigger commission for Euros, because the account is in sterling... )

To buy the book directly from us, in this way, please contact us via the Mollymawk website using our contact form. We will need your postal address, of course, and a phone number.
We will then send you a Paypal payment request and will pass your order and your details to the publisher.
Delivery is supposed to take around 10 days (or 3 days less if you pay an extra 25p / 30c to expedite the order) .

If you would like to order in this way, please do it quickly, because as soon as this gale has blown through we will be heading out to sea again!

Jill

P.S. Roxanne is quite untouched by all this fame and glory. She is crouched down in a corner of the car park, in the icy wind, watching a crab spider.

[Sue]

Roxanne is quite untouched by all this fame and glory. She is crouched down in a corner of the car park, in the icy wind, watching a crab spider.
                                      That's true professionalism for you!!

                                                                            Keep it up Roxanne 

[parthenope]

Hi all,

My son Adam is a member of the RSPB Wildlife Explorers club and has just received the January-February 2010 edition of their magazine Bird Life.
Looking through it we came across a double page spread featuring none other than Roxanne! It's great article entitled The Ship's Naturalist and I guess it must have it's young readership green with envy, I know I am!
Congratulations Roxanne!, (surely the most famous naturalist on the forum!)

Steve

[parthenope]

Hi all,

Here is the article from the January-February 2010 edition of Bird Life, (the RSPB Wildlife Explorers club magazine), by Roxanne that I mentioned in my previous posting.

Regards
Steve

[Clive]

Way to go Roxy!...... Great article.....

How are the book sales going I wonder........ Don't expect an answer too soon as an albatros told me the mawkers are the other side of the pond right now... 

[Technopat]

 

en el otro lado del charco  where the weather is so better than in Spain - excepting Madrid, of course, a city awakening to yet another gloriously sunny day

Regs. to All,
Technopat