Nature's Child
Published on 3. March 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-0-349-11760-7 (ISBN)
Description
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?
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?
Reviews / Votes
An entrancing utterance of controlled rapture * Magnus Magnusson * 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... highly recommended. * BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE * This is a moving a lyrical study of a young girl enjoying the freedom of a country upbringing. Written by one of our premier wildlife authors and beautifully illustrated by Derek Robertson, it offers many pleasures. * SCOTS MAGAZINE *More details
Edition
Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
209 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-349-11760-7 (9780349117607)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Previous edition
John Lister-Kaye
Nature's Child
Book
04/2004
Little, Brown & Company
€41.07
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Sir John Liste-Kaye is one of Scotland's best-known naturalists and conservationists. He has lectured on wildlife and the environment on three continents and served prominently in the RSPB, the Nature Conservancy Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. He lives at Aigas with his wife and family.