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Footprints in the Woods is John Lister-Kaye's account of a year
spent observing the comings and goings of otters, beavers, badgers,
weasels and pine martens. This family - Mustelidae - all live in
the wild at Aigas, the conservation and field study centre that has
been John's home for more that forty-five years. With the patient
and meticulous care of a true naturalist, John observes and records
the lives, habits and habitats of these elusive animals. Hours of
careful waiting and watching in the woods and loch, the river,
fields and moorland is rewarded with insight into how these animals
live when unhindered by human interference; sometimes red in tooth
and claw, but often playful, familial, curious and surprising. As a
boy, badgers and weasels were John's first encounter with wild
animals, now he has spent fifty years living side-by side with them
in the Highlands and come to know much of their ways. Footprints in
the Woods is the culmination of that long association with the
Mustelidae family, a love letter to the otters, beavers, badgers,
weasels and pine martens that also call Aigas home, and a reminder
of the fragility of habitat and the beauty and variety we have to
lose if we don't choose to actively protect it.
Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2019 When Les and Chris
Humphreys moved to Ardnamurchan 15 years ago, little did they
realise they would be sharing their home with some of Britain's
most elusive and misunderstood mustelids. Amongst all the animals
and birds that visit their garden, they have formed a special bond
with numerous pine martens, and have studied them and a cast of
other creatures at close range through direct observation and via
sensor-operated cameras. Naturalist and photographer Polly Pullar
has known the Humphreys and their pine martens for many years. In
this book she tells the remarkable story of the couple and their
animal friends, interpolating it with natural history, anecdote and
her own experiences of the wildlife of the area. The result is a
fascinating glimpse into the life of a much misunderstood animal
and a passionate portrait of one of Scotland's richest habitats -
the oakwoods of Scotland's Atlantic seaboard.
In 1957, after travelling in southern Iraq, Gavin Maxwell returned
to the West Highlands of Scotland with an otter cub called Mijbil.
Written within thew sound of the sea, in a remote cottage where
they set up home together, this enduring story evokes the unspoilt
seascape and wildlife of a place Maxwell called Camusfearna. Ring
of Bright Water was hailed as a masterpiece when it was first
published, sold over two million copies worldwide, and was later
adapted into a successful film. Fifty years on it remains one of
the most lyrical, moving descriptions of a man's relationship with
the natural world. Our new edition is unabridged and includes all
the illustrations from the first edition.
Winner of the Richard Jefferies Society Writers' Prize 'No one
writes more movingly, or with such transporting poetic skill, about
encounters with wild creatures. Its pages course with sympathy,
humility, and wisdom' Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk From
his home deep in a Scottish glen, John Lister-Kaye has watched and
come to understand intimately the movements and habits of the
animals, and in particular the birds, that inhabit the wild and
magnificent Highlands. Drawing on a lifetime of observation, Gods
of the Morning is his wise and affectionate celebration of the
British countryside and the birds that come and go through the
year. It is also a lyrical reminder of the relationship we have
lost with the seasons and a call to look afresh at the natural
world around us.
Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2018 John Lister-Kaye has
spent a lifetime exploring, protecting and celebrating the British
landscape and its wildlife. Lister-Kaye's joyous childhood holidays
- spent scrambling through hedges and ditches after birds and small
beasts, keeping pigeons in the loft and tracking foxes around the
edge of the garden - were the perfect apprenticeship for his two
lifelong passions: exploring the wonders of nature, and writing
about them. Warm, wise and full of wonder, The Dun Cow Rib is a
captivating coming of age tale by one of the founding fathers of
nature writing.
For the last thirty years John Lister-Kaye has taken the same
circular walk from his home deep in a Scottish glen up to a small
hill loch. Each day brings a new observation or an unexpected
encounter - a fragile spider's web, an osprey struggling to lift a
trout from the water or a woodcock exquisitely camouflaged on her
nest - and every day, on his return home, he records his thoughts
in a journal. Drawing on this lifetime of close observation, At The
Water's Edge encourages us to look again at the nature around us,
to discover its wildness for ourselves and to respect and protect
it.
Conservationist and naturalist John Lister-Kaye, founder of the
Aigas Field Centre, writes about his life in the glens, the
wildlife that surrounds him and the primeval magical exchange that
takes place between man and nature once so central to ancient
civilisations. He describes finding the ruined nineteenth-century
estate that is to become Aigas, taking it over and turning it into
a going concern as an Educational Centre, and his own personal
motivation, following the Torrey Canyon oil spillage and natural
disasters in the 1960s, to become a conservationist. Interspersed
within the narrative detail are engaging and enlightening
descriptions of flora and fauna. John Lister-Kaye carries the
reader very effectively into the minute worlds he observes and
backs up keen scrutiny with facts and figures. SONG OF THE ROLLING
EARTH is a notably entertaining and enlightening addition to the
canon of naturalist writing that includes Gavin Maxwell's RING OF
BRIGHT WATER, Henry Williamson's TARKA THE OTTER and the works of
Gerald Durrell.
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