'As I write Hermione's twelfth year is drawing to a close. The years of innocence are waning. But we have had the good fortune to live through a period when a child's mind is wide open and as absorbent as a sponge. Blessed years of exploration and discovery, fat and full of the natural world, which surrounds her here ... the mountains and forests and ospreys, eagles, otters and pine martens of a beautiful land.'
NATURE'S CHILD is John Lister-Kaye's account of bringing up his daughter to appreciate the nature around her so beloved to himself. It is also a moving meditation on that world, and on their relationship, as he shows her how caterpillars metamorphose into moths; how beavers build dams in Norway; how half a million sea birds migrate to Shetland once a year to breed; how white rhinos behave in the wilds of Swaziland; how baby polar bears are raised on an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. As John puts it: 'Life is a collection of fragments of time charged with deeply personal sensation and meaning … we had watched polar bears for a few minutes, but the recollection of those images are locked in for life. What is love if not time given in joy and delight?'
- 'An entrancing utterance of controlled rapture' Magnus Magnusson
- 'A magical, thoughtful tale- as much about fatherhood as nature's glories- that will leave you as wide-eyed as a child.' MAIL ON SUNDAY
- 'There are not many modern books about wildlife that are so perceptive, so enjoyable and such a throughly good read.' BIRDS MAGAZINE
- 'It's the book's finely drawn details that beguile…' BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE
Paperback:
£9.99
Published 03/03/2005