Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank

The elusive lives of otters, badgers, weasels and more are rendered in John Lister-Kaye’s enchanting lyrical style

A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: NATURE AND TRAVEL

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.

Sir John Lister-Kaye is one of Britain’s best-known naturalists and conservationists. He is the author of eleven books on wildlife and the environment, including The Dun Cow Rib, shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, and Gods of the Morning, winner of the Richard Jefferies Award for Nature Writing. John has lectured on the natural environment all over the world. He has served prominently in the RSPB, the Nature Conservancy Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. In 2003 he was awarded an OBE for services to nature conservation and in 2016 he was awarded the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Geddes Environment Medal. He lives with his wife and family among the mountains of the Scottish Highlands, where he runs the world-famous Aigas Field Centre.

lister-kaye.co.uk aigas.co.uk