Book Summary and Reviews of Adventures of a Young Naturalist by David Attenborough

Adventures of a Young Naturalist by David Attenborough

Adventures of a Young Naturalist

The Zoo Quest Expeditions

by David Attenborough

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Published:
  • May 2018, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The story of Zoo Quest expeditions in Guyana, Indonesia and Paraguay - perfect for fans of Blue Planet 2, Gerald Durrell and Ranulph Fiennes.

In 1954, David Attenborough, a young television presenter, was offered the opportunity of a lifetime - to travel the world finding rare and elusive animals for the London Zoo's collection, and to film the expedition for the BBC for a new show called Zoo Quest.

This is the story of those voyages. Staying with local tribes while trekking in search of giant anteaters in Guyana, Komodo dragons in Indonesia, and armadillos in Paraguay, he and the rest of the team contended with cannibal fish, aggressive tree porcupines, and escape-artist wild pigs, as well as treacherous terrain and unpredictable weather, to record the incredible beauty and biodiversity of these regions.

Written with his trademark wit and charm, Adventures of a Young Naturalist is not just the story of a remarkable adventure, but of the man who made us fall in love with the natural world and taught us the importance of protecting it - and who is still doing so today.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A marvelous book, an invaluable record of David Attenborough's first three journeys ... What makes this elegant book so unputdownable is that Attenborough makes the viewer feel inside the picture, part of his team ... On the page, as on the screen, he shares, shows, explains. His style is disarmingly self-deprecating, utterly engaging." - The Daily Telegraph (UK)

"An elegant and gently funny writer." - The Times (UK)

"One of the last of the pith-helmeted, noble British adventurers, he tells a host of wondrous tales set in the last years of the crumbling British Empire and he tells them beautifully ... His writing is as impressive and as enjoyable as his TV programs and there can be no higher praise." - The Daily Express (UK)

This information about Adventures of a Young Naturalist was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Sir David Attenborough is a broadcaster and naturalist whose television career is now in its seventh decade. After studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge and a brief stint in publishing, he joined the BBC. Since the launch of his famous Zoo Quest series in 1954, he has surveyed almost every aspect of life on earth and brought it to the viewing public. His latest program, Planet Earth II, was the most watched nature documentary of all time.

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