Company description
Roberts Birds - First Edition In December 1935 the South African Bird Book Fund was formed to fund a complete and up-to-date new bird book for southern Africa under the authorship of Austin Roberts, and illustrated by Norman C.K. Lighton. The successful and popular first edition, titled The Birds of South Africa, was published on 8 June 1940. The affairs of the fund were handled by the secretary, John Voelcker, who became chairman after the untimely death of Austin Roberts in 1948. He, together with the other Trustees of the Fund, became the driving force that ensured that the original edition was revised and updated. Revisions In 1957, seventeen years after the release of the first edition, the Trustees published the second edition under the authorship of G.R. McLachan and R. Show more
Liversidge, who also revised the third (1970) and fourth (1978) editions, titled Roberts Birds of South Africa. The Trust had by now become known as the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, a non-profit organisation with limited funding derived from subscriptions and minimal profit from the sale of books. The fifth and sixth editions (1985 and 1993) were revised by Gordon L. Maclean. The seventh edition (2005), entrusted to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, was completely rewritten under the editorship of P.A.R. Hockey, W.R.J. Dean, and P.G. Ryan. Future Publications With well over 300 000 copies of Roberts books sold to date, the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund is committed to remaining the forerunner in the publication of up-to-date bird information in the region, and to making publications as affordable as possible to the southern African birding community.