Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 118
A Nature Book Reader
RICHARD SHELTON
Naturalist, fishery scientist, wildfowler and writer
Mediterranean Seafood
by Alan Davidson
Mediterranean Seafood
was described by the late
Auberon Waugh as, “The
best book I have ever read
on this or any other subject”
and I agree with him. Alan
Davidson was a diplomat,
a distinguished classicist
and polymath with a deep
interest in the natural history
of the fish and shellfish
eaten by the coastal peoples
to which his duties as a
diplomat introduced him.
Davidson’s stated objective
in writing the book was,
“to help those who visit or
live in the Mediterranean
region to fully enjoy the
seafood there available”.
Mediterranean Seafood
is a great deal more than
that. It is a beautifully
written natural history of
the seafood species of the
118
region, each described with
scientific precision and with
pithy notes covering both
their biology and the ways
in which their culinary
qualities are brought to
perfection by the various
local communities that
fished for them in the mid
twentieth century and two
millenia before when, at
the height of Roman power,
watching red mullet die
before consigning them to
the oven was a favourite
dinner party entertainment.
Accompanying these
literary riches, notes on the
work of the early naturalists
introduce the reader to the
underlying science and
remind him of the giants
upon whose shoulders the
modern science of biological
oceanography is supported.
