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The legendary naturalist shares tales of his early wildlife adventures.
JOURNEYS TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD BY DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, TWO ROADS BOOKS, £25
From 1954 to 1963, David Attenborough famously made several Zoo Quest series for the BBC, travelling to the tropics to collect animals for London Zoo and film indigenous peoples. After most of the expeditions he wrote books that, for this and many other young naturalists and budding writers, were hugely influential. The last three of the series – in which he visited New Guinea, Madagascar and Australia’s Northern Territory – are now collected, re-edited and repackaged with a selection of neverbefore-seen images.
Sixty years ago, these places really did represent the ‘other side of the world’, and the ‘otherness’ of their wildlife and people entered our consciousness through moving pictures. But books have a far greater impact on the inner eye than film, and this one contains asides – such as the story about Tui Malilo, the ancient tortoise given to the Tongan royal family by Captain Cook and fed every day by a prisoner that Attenborough describes as a “large, amiable murderer” – that are pure gold.
Accounts from that era can make unsettling reading. However, this book has a more modern theme. It tells the story of a journey to discover the fugitive, mythical, ‘other’: Paradise. The notion that Paradise almost did exist, that we ruined it, and that we should do all we can to prevent further ecocide, confirms that Attenborough’s current environmental message echoes what he showed us 60 years ago. Describing the Aboriginal artists of Australia’s Arnhem Land, he observes how pictures can influence the course of nature. In his own way, that’s what he’s always done.