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Books by John Lister-Kaye

Sir John Lister-Kaye describes himself as a nature writer - someone who strives to connect on a personal level with nature and wildlife, as opposed to scientific writing about nature or conventional natural histories. 

John’s best-seller, Song of the Rolling Earth (2003) was a calculated attempt to move away from anecdotal autobiography and into the nature writing genre.  It was, he says, a dam bursting inside his skull.  Forty years of being a professional naturalist and living in the wild Highlands had given him a remarkable insight into how nature works around his home, and, even more significantly, helped him begin to understand man’s place in the natural world.

But his urge to write started long before that.  Aged seven he wrote his first article on how to identify adders for a school magazine and has been a regular contributor to magazines and journals ever since.  His first book, The White Island (1972) was a stroke of luck.  Shortly before he died Gavin Maxwell had asked him to finish the story of the famous Maxwell otters, the last of which, Teko, died in John’s care in 1969.  The book sold well in the UK and on the other side of the Atlantic, eagerly read by Maxwell followers all over the world.  Next came The Seeing Eye (1979), which was the beginning of the story of becoming a naturalist in the Highlands and setting up Scotland’s first field studies centre.  Then he was commissioned to write a ‘Penguin Special’ Seal Cull (1980) which documented the long-running row about the government’s attempt to cull grey seals in Orkney in 1979.

John’s first novel came in 1990 One for Sorrow.  It is the gripping murder thriller centred on the emotive issue of land in the Highlands.  In 1996 he produced a ground-breaking document for Scottish Natural Heritage, Ill Fares the Land, which challenged establishment land use values in the Highlands and addressed head on the lamentable degradation of the hills and glens at the hand of man.  It proved to be controversial and thought provoking and is still in print ten year later.

Then came Song of the Rolling Earth and its sequel, Nature’s Child in 2004, the travelogue of many exciting adventures to wild places around the world with his youngest daughter Hermione.  Still striving to determine man’s place in nature, John is currently working on another deeply personal nature journal entitled On My Way to the Loch, to be published in 2007.

Books

Song of the Rolling Earth ‘Song of the Rolling Earth is an environmental classic to stand alongside Leopold’s Sand County Almanac, Maxwells’ Ring of Bright Water and Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals. In an age perplexed by experts, Lister-Kaye is that rarest of things – a genuine all-rounder.' Sebastian Skeaping, The Spectator
Price: £7.99

Natures Child Nature’s Child is a beautifully written study of the perils and pleasures of an upbringing so close to wild nature. It is also John’s meditation on fatherhood, and the delights of bestowing experiences on his daughter during those ’literally wonder-full years of childhood’, which usher back for him memories of his own childhood; of the elation of simple discovery. As he puts it: ‘Life is a collection of fragments of time charged with deeply personal sensation and meaning …. What is love if not time given in joy and delight?’ Little Brown
Price: £7.99

One for Sorrow This compelling saga gives dramatic insight into the way we use and abuse the natural heritage of our hills and glens. Stimulating, thought provoking, challenging and deeply felt, ONE FOR SORROW is also a first-rate yarn. It is a must for everyone who loves a good story and cares about the highlands. Magnus Magnusson
Price: £5.00

The Seeing Eye This is the story of a naturalist's struggle to establish a nature study centre in the Highlands of Scotland in 1970. It is a documentary punctuated with intimate observations of the wildlife which surrounded every day events, all set in striking mountain scenery of forests, lochs and glens around his home. "...this book will make you want to go there and look around you with fresh, searching eyes." Times Literary Supplement "Utterly charming …. A captivating insight into one man’s private world of wildlife." The Observer Paperback, 272 pages.
Price: £7.99

The White Island ‘The millions who fell under the spell of Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water will relish this book. On his death bed Maxwell asked the young Lister-Kaye to tell the tale of the last of the Maxwell otters, Teko, who dies in Lister-Kaye’s charge in 1969 and is buried on the island. The White Island is an engaging and beautifully written chronicle of life on a wild, wind-swept island written with charm and a love of nature that Maxwell would certainly have approved.’ John Barkham, Saturday Review
Price: £6.00

Ill Fare's The Land A Sustainable Land Ethic for the Sporting Estates of the Highlands and Islands. Scottish Natural Heritage Occasional Paper No. 3 (1994).
Price: £5.00

The Aigas Cookbook Lucy is an old and dear friend of many decades. I endorse this book a thousandfold! It is a delight; both a practical guide to real Scottish country cooking and a pleasure to read Claire Macdonald of Macdonald Just what I expect from a special lady friend and the Aigas kitchen. I have enjoyed her cooking many times and plan to do so many times again Magnus Magnusson
Price: £6.95