Life Stories

Teaching as it should be: an outstanding observer of the world around us, sharing his fascination and excitement.

Now in his 80s, Sir David has never stopped widening his interests. Mineral, fossil, vegetable, human and other animals - he keeps his eyes open and discusses what he sees and thinks, with not only charm and intelligence but something rarer - directness. He knows how to speak to people.

So in 2009 BBC4 suggested to him a series of very short - 10-minute - weekly radio talks, a new medium for this master of television, on any subjects he cared to choose. These relaxed but concentrated, 'bite-sized' broadcasts are predictably a triumph, on Friday evenings and Sunday mornings.

But radio is impermanent, has a faithful but smaller audience than television, and above all is not visual. So this book not only offers the complete texts of the first five months of the Life Stories radio talks, but has given David Attenborough the chance to illustrate them. To this he has brought his personal selection of pictures old and new, and his commentary on each - from creatures perfectly preserved in amber millions of years ago to singing gibbons of today, mermaids and salamanders, dragons and Charles Darwin, great collections and bird artists of the past.

For any reader with curiosity and a lively mind, here is rich entertainment - full of surprises and unexpected pleasures.