SKY HUNTERS: THE PASSION OF FALCONRY. By Hossein Amirsadeghi.

2008 1st edition. Square folio (257 x 308mm). Pp320. Colour and b/w photographs and illustrations throughout, photograph end-papers. Blind-stamped Thames and Hudson trade mark to blue cloth, spine titled in bronze-gilt.

An exhaustive history of this magnificent sport, with hundreds of excellent illustrations, most of which will be unfamiliar to the widely-read falconer. The wide-ranging text covers falconry from its beginnings and takes in practically every country where it has ever been practised. Much space is also given to the sport's colourful characters. Arabian, Persian and Mongolian falconry are of course covered, as well as Germany, the Czech lands, Austria, France, much on the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, modern North America and elswhere. The main text is by Hossein Amirsadeghi, with additional essays by Sir Mark Allen, Roger Upton, Patrick Morel, Sir Terence Clark and S. Kent Carnie.