So far this is such a great read. The author doesn´t just recap the actual heist, but he explores the history behind the discovery of the birds that got stolen, the "feather fever" of the Victorian age, in which the Victorian ladies basically wore dead birds as hats, and how this triggered the passing of laws to protect these birds.
And of course he explores the history behind the art of fly-tying. And I just can´t wrap my head around the fact that most of these people are experts in fly-tying, but they don´t even know how to fish.
One of my favorite passages so far has been about Lionel Walter Rothshild, baron of Rothshild, who was obsessed by birds and who was the founder of the Natural History Museum at Tring:
In 1868, as Wallace was finishing up The Malay Archipelago, Walter Rothshild was born into what one historian has described as the richest family in human history. His great-grandfather is credited with founding modern banking. His grandfather helped finance the British government´s stake in the company that build the Suez Canal. His father was friends with princes and routinely consulted by head of states. Walter, by contrast, consorted with dead animals.
This made me chuckle.
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