Mannar Unbound is more than just a coffee table book, though the photographic plates within compare with the best of them. It is accompanied by a narrative, pockets of history, that offer the reader a series of stories that entertain as much as they inform, and bring one on a journey from the realms of pre-history to the present. The length of the bibliography attests to the research and hard work that took place over five years, not just in hovering around nesting sites and waterholes for that perfect picture, but also in poring over countless publications from numerous sources to enrich the text and its stories.