Tv television for serious readers. Good evening everyone and welcome to politics and prose im Bradley Graham the coowner of the store. We are delighted to have joshua hamare humor with us. He was here for his last book about four years ago and that one of course was very popular and it told a riveting story of how an archivist in timbuktu in northern mali managed with some very brave helpers to smuggle more than three and 50,000 historical manuscripts out from under militant jihadists. Someone with an eye for some really truly great stories. And hes done it again with his new book the falcon thief the falcon thief another true and gripping tale this one about wildlife smuggling. Generalist working for newsweek over nearly two decades. They joined them in the 1980s. Within a few years he was off to cover the rest of the world. With things that were in nairobi. On back here in the u. S. For the past decade cade and a half hes continued to report and traveled widely four years ago he won the National Report it was still a prizewinning story that told the story of a physician in sierra leone. The effort to control the outbreak there. In addition to the timbuktu book he has written three other t books. Another about the siege in 2002. In the third about the 1923 earthquake. It has been said that he isports on things like a journalist and writes like a novelist. The book disk grabs the exports who for years traveled the world falcons and other are used for sports. The other central character in the story is the detective from britains nationalized crime unit. And was determined to catch him. It is a thrilling fastpaced chronicle but its more than that. Its more than just a detective story set with the rarefied world. And astounding birds. A cautionary tale about how the love of nature can go very wrong and what happens when it becomes a status status symbol. Ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming josh what humor [applause]. That is a great detailed introduction. I think this will always be my favorite bookstore and a place to talk about these things. Thanks everybody for talking and coming out. It has always impressed me. Over the course of doing this particular talk three or four times to basically present a narrative without giving away the entire book. I will very quickly sign and start with a introduction. The bad librarian came out in 2016 and it was a story i have followed for many years. One to timbuktu and one tamale and continue to visit over the years and got a couple of smithsonian assignments to write about. I was pretty well versed in that story when al qaeda invaded the country and people i know actually got caught up in the violence in the capturing of the entire two thirds of the country. It was sort of like a story that i owned i feltt an made sense that the book would come out of it. It was like an act of desperation. I was looking for another project. I have thrown out some terrible ideas. Ut i dont even want to gon into them. One day in 2017 i was in london with my kids and i just happened to pick up the london times and was just sitting in a cafe in hempstead and there is a very was a very short article on about 12 or so about this character named jeffrey lynn. The tabloids love those bad puns. This was is a story about this. Notorious thief known for helicopter in and repelling down cliffs to reachng rare falcon angst they have vanishednd and been rearrested. And now the world and conservation world were alarmed that he might be coming back to any might be back on the hunt. That was on the hunt. And enough to ignite my interest. I began investigating it further. In becoming as obsessed as he was about his eggs. The nonfiction. Plunging deeper and deeper into your subject. Without giving too much away. The story begins in a shower room in the emirates first. And in Birmingham International airport. A middleage white fella. Going into the washroom. And disappeared he began with a job as a security monitor. And in the Shopping Mall. After 20 minutes the guys came out. They go inside the bathroom. Ndwe the towels still folded. Think back, toilet, nothing. He starts rooting around. And he ends up he finds a diaper and sees the diaper been in the corner of the room. C he sees an egg carton or with a single painted red egg. An easter egg inside. It was left by the guys guy still in there. What could this possibly mean it probably has something to do with drugs. H the Counterterrorism Police are brought to the scene they take him away. And strip search him. Inside the woolen socks. They are not trained at all. With the irish national. Why are they carrying raw duck eggs. They need to wear raw eggs wrapped around his body because it will prevent him from stupid and lead to a tightening of the lower back muscles. At that point they summoned and make a phone call. There had been a few good ones. They tend to give it to Andy Mcwilliams. I was a bad guy, good guy story. Certainly with britain. Mi with the most famous policeman. He realizes it is made. Probably not to hide them but to keep them warm. From the description he is instantly knows that they are there. I actually have a better image of one but for some reason it did not download basically, this is a highly protected bird the fastest bird on the planet. It can go into a stoop and die. Mcwilliam knows that they are highly prized by the falconers. Especially the wealthy shakes of the United Arab Emirates heard rumors about this market existing. For these falconers. Here he believes just from the description he may have a smuggler on his hands. Let them go down from liverpool. A portrait of them in 2010. This was in may 2010. Thats what he looked like back then. So mcwilliam comes down into interviews this guy and he is still lying and telling the same stories. D mcwilliam pretty quickly lets him know he is not dealing with an idiot he is dealing with a wildlife expert. He have taken them. They were dead and he was only bringing them down to south africa. They were pretty sure they were lying. They had been to one of the greatest concentrations of peregrine falcons in the u. S. K. Is found in this former coal mining area. They are sheltered from the wind. The trees were all cut down even a century or more ago. For them to align the incredible network. C the fierce winds and the rocky ledges here. Protected from the winds. They dont really nest. They just find these ledges. To protect them from rolling off. You have to imagine the vast landscape. They were somehow able to acquire 14 of these. Theyre pretty sure they have a professional on their hands. This is a trick trip i took later. Y that is in the mcwilliam. Let me give you a quick background sketch. He is a liverpool cop. The file worked with marines. Really grew up with no options. He barely finished school became a cop. C he became quite well known as an investigator. They decided they were tied tired of that. And suicides and murders. He was also a very talented rugby player. Gl they drove them to drop out. The birdwatching that they found let him into this subterranean world. A bird trader people who love trained pigeons. The exotic birds who actually stick birds inside to plastic tubes and send them on horrific journeys from thailand or the amazon. To satisfy the hunger of these rare bird fanatics. Another odd little aspect of this. A very british phenomenon middle edge middle aged men. And has the remote corners of the uk. Stealing eggs ever rare birds. In protected birds and blowing out the embryos and mounting them in collections. Thats all what we have to keep secret. Mcwilliam found this whole subculture the very few people knew existed. Hundreds of them. And almost singlehandedly driving this. It was operation easter. Crackdown on these guys. By the time they come across the radar screen he is wellversed almost as much about rare birds. I go here this is the market that mcwilliams knew existed. This is a scene taken in p dubai. It has been around for at least 3,000 years a lot of people believe it started in the arab world. A migration over the desert. They would trap these worlds. And then train them. They started out as hunters. We are talking even before the arrival of islam. The falconry developed. And they brought it to europe cd china. It became more of a sport in a recreational thing. It was the interaction almost mystical interaction. Even though it spread around the world and it kind of die out. And never really expanded beyond this. P it became very closely identified with arab culture. The traditions even though the desert was with the discovery of oil. They remain really intensely embedded in the culture. A trainer of a peregrine. This is kind of passion that the walt disney falconers and members of the royal family had. The crowd prince of dubai. The ruler of dubai. They have the state of thee art hospitals with the staff of veterinarians from all over the world. They pay huge salaries too. In the last 20 years as the desert has gotten smaller. And the natural prey of the birdshi has disappeared yet this new phenomenon called falcon racing. And even though the natural tendency is to drop. They are trained using everything from little mini airplanes and drones to go verdict. Ed and they gather at the race tracks. They have to go all over the world to find the greatest birds in the races. You cant trade almost every raptor in the world. In the very severe restrictions. You have to have a certificate of scientific research. If youre not part of the scientific crowd. To feed this great hunger for birds there is a whole captive breeding industry. Here is trade worth millions of dollars. Mostly these wealthy shakes. It cannot be compared to the wild ones that come out of nest. Natural selection has bred these birds over the century. Ne these are the birds of that they want. Theyre willing to go to any length. They will provide these birds with them. They only inhabit the most difficult to reach places in the world. Here we go. I became very curious to find out they figured immediately or pretty quickly that he have a global smuggler on his hands. Q and if you let him go he would escape and go back and do this again. He became fixated. Hit 36 hours to persuade a prosecutor to hold him to basically have bird eggs on him. Have no clue about the laws that they were breaking. They were really down to the wild wire. There was an egg smuggler to hold without bail with a difficult sell. He was able to keep him without bail while they begin digging into his story. Eg i did when i found my way ledger how does one become an egg smuggler. What led him to the arab world. What in that background would have created this he grew up in bulawayo the second city of within rhodesia and he grew up basically as father was a Third Generation white african they come originally fromme ireland. And then southern rhodesia. It was a magnificent geological phenomenon. Have the amazing rock structure. With eagles and hawks. Eagles and hawks. On the planet. T. And this is basically the backyard. He became involved with his father. In the late 70s he became involved in the survey this is called the black eagle which is one of the strongest eagles in the world. Pretty much nowhere else in the world. This became landrum and his father. They spent months observing this. This is where he learned to climb trees in this is just a scene a people and this is the bird. Looking at an area. Later it adds like the falcons too. A hundred to 200 feet 80 to 200 feet off the ground. This is how he grew up. This is the kind of formation that you see. Ee a perfect kind of terrain for these creatures. Another bird that this is called a crown eagle. S one of the rarest raptors in the world. Its known for having these giant talentsle and sweeping small children off the ground. With two occasions that i know of. This is his world. To sum up that story basically he was on the survey. Learning everything about birds. At the same time his father let him while he was there. And learning the locations of every nest inside the park. They were secretly taking eggs as a teenager and putting them in their own private collection at the same time. Selling them abroad. Even as a 17 or 18yearold his father was leading him down a path fi as he ended up being arrested for illegal possession of eggs the big trial of interest. I wouldve been zimbabwe at a zimbabwe at the time. The consequence was he was disgraced. He have to do flee the country bit by bit was led into this Global Enterprise gearing up and the oil money was flowing. The races were about to begin. There is a big hunger to get their hands on the most beautiful birds in the world. Its kind of hard to chronicle exactly what he did on his missions. The police believed not only did he tell me about one of these missions and this particular mission was at the arctic the falcon which is the pure white not always pure white but the most sought after. They are the biggest falcons in the world. They absolutely love to them because they arere incredibly difficult to keep alive. And the sub arctic in siberia. There was this growing desire for falcons among the arab shakes. And very hard to find even commercial breeders who were there. The only way to get your hand on one. Was to send them up to the far north. To embark on a craved exposition they told me the whole story in which a little bit i will give you here. This is from the video that the accomplish shot back in his prime. Mullen brought along the video, these guys never imagined one day video would end up in the hands of the National Wildlife crime unit in britain and in a book. But this is these guys as they were aby a shake in the middle east, not to give the whole story away. How the connection was made. Suffice it to say that other acquaintances led him to the arab market and he was just matched, total selfstarter. He was the one who came up with the idea of going aband sold it to the arabs. This is before they head off to it village called could you walk, way up north near hudson bay and this is actually the helicopter perched very near a cliff, what they would do is spot venture falcon, sometimes a couple hundred feet above the ground or over these frozen lakes and landrum would tie fasten your harness and a rope around themselves a pilot with then ascended to a thousand feet near these cliffs and then lender would would reach out and grab the eggs off these nest. Just plundering this pristine environment places that almost no one had ever been. In the plane tickets and everything to prove it wasnt just ahe had to quickly get to that it was a very close relationship, there was a huge fight between two men after couple years after this in which it involved mullens girlfriend in a complicated relationship stealing the girlfriend, custody fights they had a huge falling out and mullen was waiting for the opportunity to get even with lunchroom as he called ipme, karma is a abhe became this a credible source of stories about landrums life which stuff that had never come to light including this incredible expedition. This is actually one of the nest sites that mullen took a picture of as they were about to, i think those chicks had just been hatched. He had timed it perfectly so you need to time it so that you arrive when the eggs are viable but theyre not within the first three weeks. Theyre still too early and have to be kept in absolutely the same temperature. At that point turning the eggs slightly can kill for them. They have to wait until they are somewhat viable but also not wait too long so you dont run the risk of the egg actually hatching as you trying to sneak it through security or which has happened, there are a couple big thieves, actually happened in the 1990s abits an art form not only do you have to find these birds in this vast wilderness area. They are territorial so they have huge areas. Not like theres all this stuff was new to me but i found myself getting more and more caught up in the weirdness of it all. These birds establish their territory like five or 10 miles. There might be a nest today are and you are in your helicopter and have to sweep along another five miles looking along the cliffs until you spot something and then they would assess whether or not you could rappel down and land the helicopter on top of the cliff and rappel down or whether it was so steep that they would have to do the landrum would have to descend from a rope. They spent basically about 10 days doing this. The capture Something Like 30 eggs, which is significant part of the environmental bounty of this pristine part of the world. It was an intimate pitcher falcon extinct but it was nasty business. Mullen of course was consumed by guilt about it but he did it anyway. In fact, he did it the next year too. To make a long story short, sorry, to condense this because i dont want to get too much of it away. Basically landrum continues on this incredible course, getting more reckless taking more chances eventually it leads to this 2010 Birmingham Airport incident where Andy Mcwilliam busts him. Because mcwilliams kept him without bail, he is able to dig up a lot of landrums history and proves this is no ordinary bird egg collector but somebody with global reach is been doing it for years as a professional making money, plundering the environment. Probably with cronies in the middle east. He is working this and there is a trial, highly covered trial because the british media cant resist these elements of ex Rhodesian Army guy a helicopter repelling arab shakes, top falcon eggs. Landrum ends up getting, forgive me for not knowing details of my own book, they could to 2. 5 year prison sentence. Which is the first time, hes been doing this for 20 years already and hes been caught a couple times but always managed to sneak out and get through with a fine. It happened in zimbabwe, happened again in qucbec. Hes always managed to skate to the thin ice and survived by paying off somebody and keeping his name out of the papers. Thanks to mcwilliam mcdowell disguised all of the British Press. The video of him dangling as he is carrying the actual dvd in his carryon luggage. Mcwilliam grabs that. X put up on youtube. Everything is out there now and landrum is in prison. Mcwilliam is kind of hoping that at this point, the guy has like its time now hes learned his lesson. Jail and exposure, Media Exposure its gonna make it very difficult for him to continue along the lines of the life is like for 20 to 25 years. Basically he does get out of jail and he does make this regiment attempt to go straight, i think. People family members, friends, they find work normally. Something about those eggs you just cant stop. Its in his nature. The next time we discover landrum, he is arrested in brazil hes been stealing albino falcon eggs in chilean patagonia in this place, is probably ik National Park