An Inconvenience of Penguins: Epic voyages in pursuit of the world's most beloved bird

by Jamie Lafferty

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Audiobook, Animals, Nature, Birds, Natural History

317 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2025

Reviews

[S V B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ADMIT IT. I knew I was going to love this. Partly because anything involving Antarctica and South Georgia is very much my bag, and partly because I know Jamie's writing is brilliant. I also owe him a couple of pints but that's not relevant is it. Is it? NO!

I really liked the references to heroic age explorers (especially Mawson who doesn't get enough love), the contrast between Cherry-Garrard's 'Worst Journey' with modern polar travel was quite shocking in some ways. There is SO much more to this book but I'm very aware of giving spoilers so I'm going to keep shtum.

One of my absolute favourite parts was the ongoing snark towards fellow passengers (who stares at their phone when they could be looking at icebergs or bird life? idiots!).

100% recommend! 🍺🍺🍺

[Leora Taratula-Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect mix of education, humour and reality.

[Anja Seidel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been to Antarctica, I've seen the penguins and I get it!

[Andie Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful, funny, slightly terrifying book

[ishi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the author, entertaining as he was at times, was writing to hit a word count. Loved what he had to say about penguins, about conservation, and the threats to the different species - I wish he focussed more on that aspect of the book.

[Geoff Cumming · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to visit the Antarctic Peninsula, Elephant Island, South Georgia, and the Falklands on the Aurora ship "Greg Mortimer", with Greg himself as expedition leader and Jamie Lafferty as photographer (and zodiac driver, raconteur, highlight of the evening recap): the A team indeed!
I'd previously gone swimming with Galapagos penguins. And just about every Australian has seen the little penguins come ashore on Phillip Island--they now also come in at St Kilda, a mere stone's throw from the centre of Melbourne.
So I've seen a number of the penguin species Jamie describes--with his wonderful photos--and agree that the kings are the outstanding animals, in a high-quality field.
So I was agog to read (and goggle at) his "Inconvenience". It didn't disappoint!
Beautiful, highly engaging, and a fascinating read. Highly recommended!

[Hayden Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you love birds, travelling and a great sense of adventure? This book is definitely for you. After traveling through the world on its pages, I learnt a lot about the 18 species of penguin and how one man’s curiosity became an addiction. What a fantastic read!

[Paulibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before it is too late, and extinction sets in, Glaswegian Jamie Rafferty has set out to cross the entire penguin family off in a quest to see all 18 species. Penguins are one of the most popular families of animals on Earth, and New Zealand has its fair share of them, including the ancestral origins of the family - through an increasing archaeological fossil record. His time here in New Zealand is a mixed lot of despair and wonder, whilst his affairs overseas elsewhere are more interesting. In an evocative passage in the book, Lafferty describes the reaction of children when they see a penguin as, “whose joy around penguins is so brilliant that all shadows disappear”. In a less-delightful episode, he describes a Canadian tourist in South Africa naively offering in a baby-like talk - to a tropical South African Penguin - a ride home to Ottawa in her backpack. “We have so much snow there” she whispers. More and more penguin species which belong in the subantarctic and Antarctic are arriving further North due to climate catastrophes like glacial melt and warming ocean currents. Rafferty grinds out the last two species in paradise, but in poverty, in the subantarctic Bounty and Antipodes Islands, South of New Zealand. An admirable adventure.

[Cbuitenhuis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. I love birds and travel and as I will probably never get to Antarctica due to seasickness loved reading this tale. The author is fun, sarcastic and sometimes depressing but what can you expect when going on a mission to see birds or in this case penguins in a fragile environment suffering under man made global warming. To which the author naturally contributes a lot by going on a lot of cruises to see all species.

[Jamie Furlong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long had an obsession with penguins, I’m not really sure when it started but it probably intensified when I moved to Chile and saw Humboldt penguins sliding down rocky islands just off La Serena. Since then I have often wondered if it was possible to see every species in the world.

After reading this book, I now know it is probably not in the cards for me - at least not without a substantial investment of cash, time, energy and an element of luck.

Fortunately, this book has been able to give me an idea of what that adventure would look like.

Each chapter focuses on the hardship of the journey to visit each species while tying in some surrounding context of the area in which they find themselves and how they have adapted.

I certainly learned a lot I didn’t know, and I was glad to see this was by a Glasgow-based author, my own current Homebase.

The only downside I felt is I would have loved more focus on the penguin species themselves and what makes each unique. Sometimes this information seemed lacking compared to the wider discussion. But I guess it’s not really a bad thing if my only criticism is that I wanted more?

Solid read for penguin lovers told in a very easy to read way. As a result of this book I started donating to the WWF and adopted an Adelie penguin!

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some days you just need to faire l’otriche (do the ostrich ~ bury your head in the sand) and listen to an older Scotsman ramble on about travel woes while tracking down all 18 penguin species. Even with serious discussion of some man-made global crises, like the ones I was activity trying to avoid, it kept my interest while I knit manically.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love penguins and after seeing some in the wild in New Zealand and Antarctica, I thought maybe I would try to see them all. Well thanks to this book I now know I definitely DON'T want to do that.

I really enjoyed reading about his adventures and challenges getting to all of the different species of penguins. It was interspersed with some interesting history of the explorers and others who have appreciated penguins in the past.

I have been to a couple of places he visited and his descriptions are very accurate and I could definitely relate. I once spent a whole afternoon in a bunker until one lone Hoiho appeared on the beach, only visible through binoculars.

This is a great book for penguin lovers as well as anyone who has gone on an impossible quest.

[Matt Semple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting tidbits about some of the more isolated parts of the world but it’s the penguins which are the real stars of the show (obviously).

[Foggygirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and informative read the author comes across as an interesting personality to say the least.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

a brilliant travel book covering some of the most unique wildlife on the planet but also a harrowing reminder of the work we need to do towards conservation

[married-with-cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those books that reminds you that truly anybody can write a book. Written by a widely published travel writer, "An Inconvenience of Penguins" takes a stellar title and a decent elevator pitch — a writer chronicles his attempts to see every penguin species on Earth — and spins it into a decent yarn. The book gives plenty of information on penguins, penguin ecology, penguin conservation, and the conditions in their habitats, and I really loved the more factually focused parts of the story.

Unfortunately, the book is heavy on the travel writing, and the writer seems to tire of his mission pretty quickly. By the end of the book, I felt like he no longer had any kind of wonder or appreciation for the beauty of these birds, and many of his observations in the final stretch are simply the same observations he had at the beginning, worded slightly differently. There are also a number of sections that a more prudent editor would have cut entirely, like an aside about The Penguin from "Batman" comics, a story about how he almost beat up an Australian man on a beach, a story about how he almost beat up his Chinese roommate, a story about how he almost beat up a birdwatcher on a cruise, and a story about how he took some acid in the Arctic.

The title doesn't make sense, either, having finished the book. "The problem started, as problems often do, with a penguin." What problem? At no point are penguins ever an inconvenience to the writer — if anything, travelers like the writer are an inconvenience to penguins, since they contribute to greenhouse gases that then, in effect, cause habitat depletion in the Arctic.

The writing is lively, and the audiobook narrator I listened to did a fine job with the material, but there are certainly more interesting books about penguins out there, both written and as-of-yet unwritten.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Want to learn about the science or history of penguins? How about reading about how a guy did some acid and walked around on an island with some penguins on it instead?

Pieces of history and science were scattered, almost always given without context, and made up a tiny fraction of the book. There's a lot of the author complaining about people he didn't like when he was on cruises and tour boats, and not much else. I stuck with for the same reason I picked it up in the first place: the author's Scottish accent. I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to but definitely not me.

[Jennifer Goedde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear Madi

Unpopular opinion apparently.. not a great read. It’s meandering and pointless, all the facts and anecdotes are interesting (or could be at least) but are not structured in any meaningful way. It doesn’t build to anything and their jokes are trite and silly.

I DNF’d at page 220. Congratulations on being the first wildlife/climate change book I’ve DNF’d penguins.

🥂

See you, Mark and the pigion this weekend 🎉
Jen

[Quinnie Trinh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lobed it. Jamie provided a funny insight into a person obsessed with one thing and will compromise his finances, health and sanity just to see every penguin.