Nature's Child

by John Lister-Kaye

As I write Hermione's twelfth year is drawing to a close. The years of innocence are waning. But we have had the good fortune to live through a period when a child's mind is wide open and as absorbent as a sponge. Blessed years of exploration and discovery, fat and full of the natural world, which surrounds her here ...the mountains and forests and ospreys, eagles, otters and pine martens of a beautiful land.' NATURE'S CHILD is John Lister-Kaye's account of bringing up his daughter to appreciate the nature around her so beloved to himself. It is also a moving meditation on that world, and on their relationship, as he shows her how caterpillars metamorphose into moths; how beavers build dams in Norway; how half a million sea birds migrate to Shetland once a year to breed; how white rhinos behave in the wilds of Swaziland; how baby polar bears are raised on an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. As John puts 'Life is a collection of fragments of time charged with deeply personal sensation and meaning ...we had watched polar bears for a few minutes, but the recollection of those images are locked in for life. What is love if not time given in joy and delight?

Genres: Nature, Natural History, Memoir, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2012

About the author

Sir John Philip Lister Lister-Kaye, 8th Baronet, OBE (b. 1946) is an English naturalist, conservationist, author who is owner and director of the Aigas Field Centre, among other business interests. He is married with four children and has lived in the Highlands of Scotland since 1969.

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic. Delightful. John Lister-Kaye captures the wonder of a childhood spent in close contact with nature. I couldn’t help reminiscing my own childhood and feeling grateful that I spent so much time chasing snapping turtles and sunfish in the lake, scouting out foxes and deer in our yard, and admiring (and climbing) the tall pine, sturdy oak, vibrant maple, and gentle birch trees all around me.

Lister-Kaye’s greatest achievement in this work is to subtly present a case for the under recognized necessity of nature-based education, especially in early childhood. I will be reading more from Lister-Kaye soon!

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book demonstrating the joys of exploration and discovery between father and daughter.

[Cath Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Endearingly earnest account of grand old man of Scottish nature Lister Kaye's adventures with his youngest child, Hermione. Frog spawn is nurtured into tadpoles, fledgings are rescued and mostly raised to adulthood, life lessons are learned. It's worthy if a little old fashioned. There is one event which justifies the read - during a holiday to Malta - which haunts me still.

[Bruce Flyinghorse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm glad I have a daughter. Edit: (Make that two)