Author(s): DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

SECONDHAND BOOKS | NATURE

This book, like the BBC television series on which it is based, is an attempt to give us a history of nature rather than a conventional natural history, and it is told as much as possible in terms of animals and plants alive today. The result is a pageant of life - a re-enactment of 3,500 million years of history with a cast of characters drawn from the whole range of life on earth today.
David Attenborough has received high praise for both the book and the series. This book is a permanent record of one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by British television as well as a standard introduction to the study of nature.
'One can hardly conceive a more ambitious undertaking than to represent in a few hundred pages nothing less than the history of life on our planet. The pictures are simply wonderful - the book is an achieve- ment of the artist's eye and the poet's pen. The completeness of the story is really amazing.' Konrad Lorenz
'Quite simply, this is the best introduction to natural history ever written. . . The text has the vivid, crisp directness of a professional communicator at the height of his powers."
Desmond Morris
'Here is not just another book on wildlife, but a fascinating, bold sketch of the history of life on earth, told very competently, enthusiastically and modestly, and in a form that whets the appetite.' Niko Tinbergen "There cannot be more than half a dozen professional biologists in the world who could tell the story with anything like the crystal clarity of David Attenborough's style... I found the plates quite breathtaking; even if there were no text, the book would be worth the money.'
Eric Ashby

Collins/BBC, 1979. Reprint. A near fine, unmarked copy in a very good, unclipped d/w with light edge rubbing.