Eva Elliott no sooner starts a relationship than she is wondering how to get out of it, and worries that there is something odd about her tendency "to think so often about endings". That's until she meets the dashing barrister Luke, who would seem to offer her lasting happiness. But when an old friend of his, the glamorous Grace, arrives on the scene, Eva feels threatened – and her feet begin to itch once more.

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Independent Crossword

Letter: Blame the sheep

Sir: Duff Hart-Davis reports (8 November) the findings of the Langholm report Birds of Prey and Red Grouse, recently launched in Edinburgh. The results were not in dispute. On Langholm as soon as the raptors received their proper legal protection they increased, the red grouse failed to peak and in a season when 2,000-4,000 might be expected to be shot there were fewer than 100 bagged.

Nature: Crime is in the air for wild birds

Crime against wild birds is still rife, despite interest in the environment at "an all-time high," a leading conservationist body warned yesterday.

Outdoors: A bird in the hand

Falconry is more popular now than it has been for decades. Despite complex legislation protecting wild birds, and the heavy demands of ownership, more people are learning how to care for and fly a hawk, and maybe catch a rabbit for the pot

Nature: Bird population on the rise

The bird population in Britain has boomed over the past two years, according to a big survey. Between 1994, when the Breeding Birds Survey was established, and 1996, 36 of the more common species increased, 48 were stable and 15 declined in number.

Urban return for red kites

Once extinct in England and Scotland, the spectacular red kite, a bird of prey with a 5ft wing span, could soon become a familiar sight in places as urban and unromantic as Wolverhampton or Derby.

Rain brings banquet for badgers, but owls starve

It is not just holidaymakers in Britain who have suffered from a miserable wet summer. The rain in June and the first two weeks of July reduced the food supply for birds of prey, chilled their chicks and flooded their nests, badly affecting the breeding season for barn owls, merlins, kestrels and buzzards.

Birds of prey illegally killed

Each week birds of prey are illegally killed by poisoning, shooting, trapping or nest destruction, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says, in a report published today.

Freedom proves fatal to eagle owl of St Paul's

An escaped eagle owl which had been nesting in the roof of St Paul's Cathedral for the last two weeks was found dead by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals yesterday.

There's no place like dome for the owl of St Paul's

A large owl has become a regular visitor to the dome of St Paul's Cathedral in central London. Staff have welcomed the bird of prey, because it keeps the pigeons away.

Weekend with the birds who gave us booze

UK OUTDOORS: Falconry on horseback? Sounds like something to leave to the experts. Not at all, says Rupert Isaacson

THE FULL MONTY

Actor RICHARD GRIFFITHS talks with Liese Spencer

The mother of all freeloaders

She dumps her young on others, eats their eggs, and disappears. The female cuckoo has remarkable habits, writes Helen Lewis

Nature: No golden future for eagles

England's only pair of golden eagles may be getting too old to breed. But even if this is the end for them south of the border, conservationists have no plans to intervene and reintroduce Britain's biggest bird of prey into England.

Letter: Brids of prey still under threat

ir: Birds of prey need more protection rather than less if the comments reported by Duff Hart-Davis ("Feathers fly in raptor debate", 12 March) are typical of hill farmers and gamekeepers.
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