At the Water's Edge: A Walk in the Wild

“This wonderful collection of wildlife encounters will make anyone want to pull on their boots and re-discover the world on our doorsteps.”—Kate Humble, TV host & author

For the last thirty years, naturalist 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.

“A delight.”—Country Life

“This is a quiet but rousing call to action for anyone who loves the natural world and wants to help preserve it.”—Sunday Telegraph

“I’d put it in the hands of anyone who ever enjoyed a day out in the fresh air, even those who don’t think they like the countryside: they’ve got to be seduced by this prose.”—BBC Radio Scotland

“Beautifully observed and rich in description, the book sounds too with an urgent voice, warning of what will be lost to us should we continue to take too little action to protect the natural world.”—Esther Woolfson, author of Field Notes from a Hidden City

“A thoughtful analyst of the evolutionary interplay between human being and animal.”—The Times

© 2010 Canongate Books (Ebook): 9781847678904

Release date

Ebook: 25 February 2010