Category: Nature Detective

‘Be a Nature Detective’ by Maxwell Knight (1968) – natural history tradecraft from Britain’s greatest spymaster and the original ‘Nature Detective’ courtesy of the BBC

Posted on by Simon H King in BBC Natural History, Maxwell Knight's books, Nature Detective

It certainly wasn't appropriate for Maxwell Knight to share his spy training during his Sunday afternoon BBC broadcasts, or was it? Surely not? Perish the thought. But, what if his broadcasts and books contained the same basic training (the same 'tradecraft') he was giving MI5 recruits? As far as Knight was concerned, the two were … Continue reading ‘Be a Nature Detective’ by Maxwell Knight (1968) – natural history tradecraft from Britain’s greatest spymaster and the original ‘Nature Detective’ courtesy of the BBC →

We need more naturalists, more 21st Century Nature Detectives

Posted on by Simon H King in Conservation, Fascism, Maxwell Knight's books, Nature Detective, Spy-runner, The Linnean Society

Maxwell Knight was amongst the first - if not the first - to coin the phrase 'nature detective' before the Second World War; however, he would have been the first to admit that his natural history forefathers had literally risked life and limb detecting fauna and flora as skilfully recorded in Richard Conniff's book The Species … Continue reading We need more naturalists, more 21st Century Nature Detectives →