Adam Nicolson says this “paean to the beauty of life on the wing” began when he read a Seamus Heaney lecture exploring French philosopher Simone Weil’s aphorism: “Obedience to the force of gravity. The greatest sin.” It says everything about this gorgeous book: a poetic, soaring exploration of 10 species of seabirds: gull, guillemot, gannet and so on – which revels in the way they “float like beings from the otherworld”. And for all Nicolson’s determination to celebrate the cultural significance of birds that have magnetised his mind, there’s a proper dose of gritty reality here too, not just in his horror that “science is coming to understand the seabirds just as they are dying”. This is a visceral book, full of hardy, bloodthirsty birds. Nicolson should know this terrain – his father actually bought the Shiants, the Hebridean islands teeming with puffin, razorbill and kittiwake – but his writing is expansive, generous and beautifully composed, rather than elitist. Kate Boxer’s illustrations are a delightful companion, too.

• The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicholson is published by HarperCollins (£16.99). To order a copy for £14.44 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99