Author:Gilbert White,Richard Mabey
More than any other writer Gilbert White (1720-93) has shaped the relationship between man and nature. A hundred years before Darwin, White realised the crucial role of worms in the formation of soil and understood the significance of territory and song in birds. His precise, scrupulously honest and unaffectedly witty observations led him to interpret animals' behaviour in a unique manner. This collection of his letters to the explorer and naturalist Daines Barrington and the eminent zoologist Thomas Pennant - White's intellectual lifelines from his country-village home - are a beautifully written, detailed evocation of the lives of the flora and fauna of eighteenth-century England.
Fascinating... Almost every paragraph contains a jolt
—— New York TimesHighly entertaining...a startling look at newly discovered universal laws
—— Chicago TribuneOne of the industry's most well-known shepherdesses.
—— Emily Ashworth , Farmers GuardianA fine book...fascinating
—— EconomistBateson and Martin have delivered what others have claimed to provide: a solid, signposted road out of the trench war between nature and nurture
—— Marek Kohn , IndependentWith a clarity of style that belies the complexity of the subject, Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin conduct us through the strategic highways adn tactical byways of individual life history
—— Richard Dawkins'Exhilarating'
—— Melvyn Bragg , Observer'As enthralling in its own way as was Darwin's original'
—— Kenan Malik , Independent on Sunday