Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RICHARD JEFFERIES AWARD
A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023

Footprints in the Woods is John Lister-Kaye’s charming account of a year spent with otters, badgers, weasels and pine martens. This family – Mustelidae – all live in the wild at Aigas, the conservation and field study centre in the Highlands that he calls home.

With fifty years of experience living side-by-side with these creatures and the patience of a true naturalist, John reveals the lives of these elusive animals: sometimes red in tooth and claw, but often playful, familial, curious and surprising.

Publisher Review

Sir John Lister-Kaye’s latest book reveals the real, bloody world of nature’s natural-born killers. [ . . . ] In the course of more than 50 years, he has become one of Britain’s most celebrated nature writers and an expert on conservation * * The Times * * John Lister-Kaye’s mesmerising new book reveals the true savagery of mustelids . . . bears both the unsentimentality of a lifelong naturalist and the eloquent punch of a superior thriller-writer * * Telegraph * * Spellbinding . . . Footprints In The Woods is a wonderfully beguiling read. Second to none, it does what all great nature writing should do: it makes you want to get out there yourself * * Mail on Sunday * * This book conjures otters, badgers, pine martens and weasels right onto the page, in language that is deft, vivid and alive — JAY GRIFFITHS Lister-Kaye is the real thing: a peerless observer who is just as much part of the land as his beloved badgers . . . Marvellous — CHARLES FOSTER Sir John Lister-Kaye, a leading naturalist and conservationist, has a fine eye for detail and a poetic turn of phrase. [ . . . ] Mesmerising * * Simple Things * * A love letter to the otters, badgers, weasels and pine martens . . . and a reminder of the fragility of habitat and the beauty and variety we have to lose if we don’t choose to actively protect it * * Yorkshire Reporter * * Praise for John Lister Kaye: Utterly charming and captivating * * Sunday Times * * If only we could all be as attentive to the life around us as John Lister-Kaye. No one writes as movingly, or with such transporting poetic skills, about encounters with wild creatures — HELEN MACDONALD, author of H IS FOR HAWK Scotland’s high priest of nature writing; it’s charming and moving to wander along with him * * The Times * *