My Natural History: The Animal Kingdom and How it Shaped Me - Tapa blanda

My Natural History fizzes with verve, romance and delight - and more epiphanies than could reasonably be expected in one lifetime.A" The Times Barnes is a committed naturalist, with a wonderful knowledge of wildlife and a gift for bringing his enthusiasm to life - He has a deft turn of phrase and a lyrical style - A" Rosie Boycott Reading Barnes's prose is a bit like peeling a rather elegant onion, as he gradually reveals secrets about his life through the medium of the natural world. My Natural History will delight Barnes' loyal readers and win him new ones..A" BBC Wildlife Magazine Few memoirs have been moulded around so inviting a conceit as this. Barnes writing is lovely and his animals are nicely observed, yet this is a book whose appeal derives as much from the author's generous spirit as the story he is telling. A" TLS

The animal kingdom came to my rescue. It always has done. I suspect it always will. It rescued me at Sunnyhill Primary School, it rescued me in my adolescence, it has rescued me over and over again throughout my adult life." In My Natural History Simon Barnes, like a modern-day Gerald Durrell, weaves together the story of his life via the animals and the natural encounters that have shaped it. From the greater horseshoe bat that transported Barnes from the dull classrooms of his youth, to the great whale which marked the moment he knew he was going to be a writer, from Himalayan Kingfishers in India, to majestic lions in the Luangwa valley, each animal represents a piece in the puzzle of Barnes's life. With its humour and poetry, every page fizzing with Barnes's infectious enthusiasm, My Natural History cannot fail to delight and enthrall any lover of the wild world.