An Inconvenience of Penguins: Epic voyages in pursuit of the world’s most beloved bird by Jamie Lafferty

‘Jamie Lafferty embarks on an epic quest – in which the journey is at least as entertaining as the end result’ – Stephen Moss, author of Ten Birds That Changed the World

‘Highly entertaining and gloriously obsessional’ – Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan

‘A wise, rude, hilarious and oddly moving account’ – Ed Caesar, author of The Moth and the Mountain

The problem started, as problems often do, with a penguin.

From Kings and Emperors to Macaronis and Rockhoppers, penguins are one of the most immediately recognisable animals on Earth. Yet for all that familiarity, what do we really know about them? An Inconvenience of Penguins follows award-winning travel writer Jamie Lafferty as he visits all 18 species in a bid to understand the birds and their extraordinarily varied habitats a little better. On voyages to some of the world’s most inaccessible and challenging landscapes, he recounts the history of our unique relationship with the world’s most popular bird, telling stories of the penguins, but also the people and places around them.

From getting stranded in the Galapagos to marching through African guano fields, and leading photography groups in the Antarctic to taking psychedelics on the Falklands, this is a birding quest like no other. Along the way Lafferty relives the experiences of early polar explorers, for who penguins were perplexing mysteries, welcome companions and even occasional meals, and meets the modern penguin lovers trying to save their fragile environments.

Featuring cameos from a wide cast of characters including Ernest Shackleton, Charles Darwin, and Sir Francis Drake, as well as beautiful photographs of each penguin species, An Inconvenience of Penguins is part-love letter to and part-biography of these remarkable creatures.

An award-winning travel writer journeys to see all eighteen species of penguin in this warm and charming biography of the much-loved birds, their disappearing habitats and their relationship with humans.

About the Author: Jamie Lafferty is a regular contributor to the Sunday Times, Financial Times and National Geographic Traveller, while his work has also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, and BBC Travel. He has been nominated for over twenty awards in the travel writing industry, winning Travel Writer of the Year at the Travel Media Awards in 2020 and Specialist Travel Writer of the Year at the TravMedia Awards in April 2023. When he’s not traveling, he lives in Glasgow.

25 Sep 2025
 

An Inconvenience of Penguins: Epic voyages in pursuit of the world’s most beloved bird by Jamie Lafferty ISBN 9781035413133