A short book review

I did a lot of reading for this project, and some of it was remarkably interesting for reasons quite other than expected. One in particular which was recommended to me is Egg-shells by one Michael Prynne. The book is ostensibly on the repair of eggs, but contains a great deal of the author's other thoughts on maintaining bird populations, when collecting eggs is and is not permissible (something of a moot point as he was writing in 1963, just under a decade since collection became illegal in the UK), the methods by which eggs may be collected and the reasons for same, plus plentiful anecdotes describing his experiences as an active collector. With the recommendation came the caveat that towards the end of the book the author airs some decidedly unpalatable views on eugenics, and indeed this is the case. For a time I referred to the book rather flippantly for that reason, but in taking the time to read through it properly, I was pleasantly reminded that history is populated by characters, not caricatures.

Prynne was a more interesting and nuanced person than I expected. Many of his opinions range from questionable to objectionable (he is as sexist as one might expect) to downright shocking (he is a proponent of human sterilisation), but at the same time he is generally careful to provide counterpoints to most of the arguments he makes. His presentation is often entertaining, though mostly when talking about eggs, and rarely does he stray into dogmatism.

I haven't done any further research on Prynne, but by his own account he was a pilot in WWI and an officer for most of his working life. He gives an account of some time after the war, when he was placed in charge of a group of African soldiers. One might expect, knowing what we do of him, that he might make an unkind judge of his charges, but, to my unpracticed eye at least, his recounting of the occasion is surprisingly low in bigotry. In fact he appears ashamed of his initial prejudice and being unable to tell the soldiers apart, and frankly admits to his ignorance in the matter, going on to describe how in the following months he learned otherwise. The whole story was intended to illustrate an advisement on eggs, but that's beside the point.

The point is not to judge Prynne or his opinions, that's far beyond the scope of this blog. The point is that he was possessed of more than two dimensions, and makes a fine illustration of one of the reasons I enjoy studying history. Prynne is very much a product of his time, everything from his phrasing ("great socking beam") to his opinions to his recounted actions, and as a case study he's fascinating, perhaps especially when one disagrees with him. He has some charming anecdotes about water voles and nightingales. He gets angry when recounting an occasion when an eagle was shot and tempers his tirade against housecats by admitting that they provide valuable companionship for their owners. While obviously chafing at the new laws he even admits that his hobby needs "reasonable control." In fact it's a repeated mantra throughout the book that egg collectors themselves, while a maligned and much-underappreciated group in his view, are themselves partly responsible for the straits they found themselves in. Or at least, the more unscrupulous ones are. He was firmly of the belief that well-regulated egg collecting would be substantially less harmful to birds than modern farming or housecats, in which I have to admit he probably had a point, though it's worth pointing out that 1. housecats rarely snack on falcon eggs and 2. the pesticides Prynne condemned were arsenic compounds and killed everything. We've come a long way since then.
I enjoy the study of history (especially through museums) because it enables me to get closer to people, animals, cultures and modes of thought vastly removed from what I am familiar with. I suspect that if I were ever to have met him, I would probably not have liked Michael Prynne very much. But that just made him more interesting.