William Collins (14 April 2022)
ISBN: 978-0008477868


Reviewed by Ian Mowll
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I so enjoyed this book. For me, listening to David Attenborough feels like listening to poetry or music; it is not so much the content but more of a feeling of being in a forest where I can relax and feel at home. In this way, I found the book to have a healing quality; I am taken away from my over mechanical, over timetabled and over stimulated life in our post industrial culture. Listening to the book was like being in the presence of a loveable uncle talking about his adventures with enthusiasm and wonder for the natural world.

The book is quite wide ranging in the author’s description of life on our planet. All of it was interesting but here are just a few of my highlights.

I’ve always been fascinated by rain forests, ever since I visited one in Peru. They have such rich abundance of life and intricate eco-systems. David Attenborough points out that the Amazon rain forest has retained its own ecosystems longer than most places on the planet which is why there is such a proliferation of so many different species. For example, I learnt that there are 2 varieties of sloths – 2 toed and 3 toed.

The advent of grass was very important in evolutionary history as it now covers so much of the globe. Such is the extent of grassland around the world that different words have been used to describe it: prairies, steppes or the savannah. It grows fast and is eaten by so many different species that it has become an integral part of the global ecosystem.

Chapter 10 ‘Worlds Apart’ talks about life on some of the islands on our planet. How they tend to evolve their own unique ecosystems. Coconuts, turtles and flightless birds such as the New Zealand moa and kiwi are discussed. And how island ecosystems tend to be at risk from outside invasive species – particularly humans.

At the end of the book, Attenborough addresses the urgent issues facing our living planet: climate change, pollution and the mass extinction of species. And how we must live in harmony with life on the Earth for the sake of future generations of both humans and non-humans and for the planet itself.

This book gave me such a feeling of awe at the diversity, adaptability and complexity of life on our amazing planet. And there is so much more to explore.