Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

I just love Planet Earth!, 25 Oct 2008
It makes you want to travel around this beautiful world and forget about all the ugly and bad things that are happening on this planet.

Great completment to the series!, 10 Oct 2008
This is a very well made book about the series and compltements it well. As books do you can linger on the pages, read the explanatory notes in your own time and take it a page at a time.

Fills in loads of details about issues and facts that can only be glossed over on TV,


Simply Superb, 30 May 2008
This book describes the Earth in its truest sense, Not what we see every day, but what we should see and help protect.!! A spectacle. It appeals to every human soul, A delight to read it over and over again.

Recommended now and for generations to come..

Breathtaking,beautiful and at times thought provoking., 16 Dec 2007
This book is a portfolio of the best moments from the Planet earth series.It covers everything from the great sands to the shallow seas.11 different sections in total.I recieved it as a birthday gift and couldnt be more pleased with it. The photos are absolutely stunning and at times thought provoking.The lone polar bear surrounded by melting sea ice really did move me.I have looked at the photos time and time again and they are still as special as when i first saw them.If you love wildlife photography then i can't see how you could not enjoy this.Faultless.

Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

I just love Planet Earth!, 25 Oct 2008
It makes you want to travel around this beautiful world and forget about all the ugly and bad things that are happening on this planet.

Great completment to the series!, 10 Oct 2008
This is a very well made book about the series and compltements it well. As books do you can linger on the pages, read the explanatory notes in your own time and take it a page at a time.

Fills in loads of details about issues and facts that can only be glossed over on TV,


Simply Superb, 30 May 2008
This book describes the Earth in its truest sense, Not what we see every day, but what we should see and help protect.!! A spectacle. It appeals to every human soul, A delight to read it over and over again.

Recommended now and for generations to come..

Breathtaking,beautiful and at times thought provoking., 16 Dec 2007
This book is a portfolio of the best moments from the Planet earth series.It covers everything from the great sands to the shallow seas.11 different sections in total.I recieved it as a birthday gift and couldnt be more pleased with it. The photos are absolutely stunning and at times thought provoking.The lone polar bear surrounded by melting sea ice really did move me.I have looked at the photos time and time again and they are still as special as when i first saw them.If you love wildlife photography then i can't see how you could not enjoy this.Faultless.

Take a Chance on Douglas..., 30 Jul 2008
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine show us `more exotic wildlife than you'd be wise to shake a stick at' highlighting many of the species of animals on the verge of extinction in this excellent book which is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1990.

Originally commissioned to write an article for the Observer newspaper on the virtually extinct Aye-Aye Lemur in 1985 Douglas and Mark teamed up four years later to make `Last Chance to See...' initially as a Radio programme and then written up as this highly entertaining and informative book. We go on a trip to see Komodo Dragons, Mountain Gorillas, White Rhinos, Kakapo Parrots, Baiji Dolphins before arriving at a bird sanctuary on Mauritius. This is the perfect ending of the book as Mauritius is where the Do-do became extinct and the parallel is drawn that if we don't want history to repeat then we must learn the lessons it teaches.

I read this book after enjoying Adam's Hitch Hiker and Dirk Gently books and although this is very different to them the brilliance of his writing shines through and we are entertained whilst the message is hammered home. So long and thanks for all the facts...



If you only ever read one book - make it this one., 28 Jul 2007
It is hilarious - it is sad - how can you cry and laugh at the same time? Read about the Kakapo!
I bought and read this book the week it was released. I quoted from it this afternoon. My 6 year old son asked me about Kimodo dragons - he wants one for his birthday - I could explain exactly why I was saying no. I think that although this book is over 15 years old it is extremely relevant to today. We must learn about our disappearing world - this is the easiest, funniest and most painless ways to do it. I hope Douglas and Mark were as proud of this book as I am of their writing it. Every week we lose hundreds of species - I'm not the conservation gestapo, however I do think more about what I do to the world since I read this book. Maybe you will too.

Last Chance to See, 11 Sep 2006
Most readers will probably be more familiar with Douglas Adams fictional output, but any fans of Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy et al would be making a grave mistake if they failed to investigate this book. Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine's globe-trotting journey to visit some of the most endangered species on the planet is not only a thought-provoking treatise on the plight of extinction but also a funny and warm travelogue, with Adams playing the role of perpetually bemused Englishman abroad. Amusing, insightful, important and highly readable.

Don't blink!, 17 Jul 2006
Somewhere in the depths of its vast corporate wisdom, the Guardian/Observer news organisation found a pearl of good sense. The pearl hatched a precious jewel of an idea. Send Douglas Adams, creator of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, accompanied by zoologist Mark Carwadine, to seek out some of the Earth's disappearing species. His account is classic Adams, with vivid description, poignant observations and incisive study of the people and places he encountered. The age of this book is of small account, even with the "Mark's Last Word" update segment closing the book. The book remains a pleasure to read.

Starting by his admission that he was "entirely qualified" for his role as "an extremely ignorant non-zoologist", Adams then describes their visit to Madagascar to find the aye-aye. A nocturnal lemur that "seems to be assembled from bits of other animals". He notes that the island was bypassed by the monkeys due to continental drift. It was the lemurs that occupied the aboreal environment. This was fine for the lemus until a different monkey, humans, arrived and began cutting down the trees. The lemurs, having fewer places left to hide, are increasingly constrained for habitat. This, of course, is the theme of the entire book.

The touring team moves through Southeast Asia to view the komodo, which may be the origin of the many "dragon" myths. Komodos are eating machines. Adams description of the way tourists are entertained by feasting komodos isn't something for the squeamish. Yet as he rightly points out, there is a tourist dollar factor to consider in how some disappearing species are to be saved. Government action is to be considered, but when wildlife becomes symbolic to a regime, endangered animals are just as likely to be further threatened. A "Leapordskin Pillbox Hat" resting on a President's head isn't the best example of conservation of species.

Of all the poignant accounts in this narrative, the kakapo must rate very high in our concern. Adams sets the scene with a vivid description of New Zealand's South Island - a place to "make your brain quiver". Landing a helicopter in that landscape also makes the brain quiver as Adams account of flying onto a ridge top demonstrates. His radio operator refuses to look over the edge while interviewing the pilot. But all the skilful piloting is of no avail as the team seeks the object of their quest. A strange, flightless bird, whose mating call was like "A Heartbeat in the Night", no longer offers his call from the ridge top. The kakapo, which inhabited the mountains for millennia, mate infrequently in a courtship beset with difficulties. With no natural predators, they failed to adapt to human-introduced dogs, cats and rats. Consequently, the population is down to about forty individuals when Adams visited New Zealand. In this case, a government has expended much effort in protecting this plump, lonely bird. An island suffered an extinction due to New Zealand's conservation efforts - it killed every cat on it. Free of predators, the island is now home to all the kakapos in existence. Every parrot bears a number tag, and a name. We meet finger-chewing Ralph whose sharp, powerful beak that never did duty as a defensive weapon.

Adams travelled to Africa to find rhinos and China to locate baiji dolphins in the murky Yangtze River. The rhinos almost escaped his gaze, but the baiji remained out of sight. The silty river caused the dolphins to adapt their hearing to life in the dark, but the multitude of noises created by human boats confuse them. The slaughter of dolphins by boat propellers is exterminating them. More active disturbances by our species have already extinguished the dodo on the island of Mauritius. Other species face similar fates. Adams encounters one of conservation's more exotic figures, Carl Jones [who also received attention from David Quammen in "Song of the Dodo"]. Jones' methods of preserving the Mauritius kestrel provides Adams with one of the most hilarious accounts in the book. How well Jones has succeeded remains to be determined.

The book is a delightful read, but that doesn't distract from the seriousness of the issue, nor Adams dedication to species preservation. Graced with some enchanting photographs, this highly personalised account still captures the reader's heart. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Superbly brilliant..., 07 Nov 2005
I was recommended this book as part of my ecotourism degree and the more i read, the less i could put it down. It was a superb insight into the world we know so little about under the surface. An interesting, highly informative read with an amusing side which never mocks the message but only contributes to the thought-provoking story that is the severity of the rapid disappearance of these unique animals.
A book to make you laugh and cry...

Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

I just love Planet Earth!, 25 Oct 2008
It makes you want to travel around this beautiful world and forget about all the ugly and bad things that are happening on this planet.

Great completment to the series!, 10 Oct 2008
This is a very well made book about the series and compltements it well. As books do you can linger on the pages, read the explanatory notes in your own time and take it a page at a time.

Fills in loads of details about issues and facts that can only be glossed over on TV,


Simply Superb, 30 May 2008
This book describes the Earth in its truest sense, Not what we see every day, but what we should see and help protect.!! A spectacle. It appeals to every human soul, A delight to read it over and over again.

Recommended now and for generations to come..

Breathtaking,beautiful and at times thought provoking., 16 Dec 2007
This book is a portfolio of the best moments from the Planet earth series.It covers everything from the great sands to the shallow seas.11 different sections in total.I recieved it as a birthday gift and couldnt be more pleased with it. The photos are absolutely stunning and at times thought provoking.The lone polar bear surrounded by melting sea ice really did move me.I have looked at the photos time and time again and they are still as special as when i first saw them.If you love wildlife photography then i can't see how you could not enjoy this.Faultless.

Take a Chance on Douglas..., 30 Jul 2008
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine show us `more exotic wildlife than you'd be wise to shake a stick at' highlighting many of the species of animals on the verge of extinction in this excellent book which is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1990.

Originally commissioned to write an article for the Observer newspaper on the virtually extinct Aye-Aye Lemur in 1985 Douglas and Mark teamed up four years later to make `Last Chance to See...' initially as a Radio programme and then written up as this highly entertaining and informative book. We go on a trip to see Komodo Dragons, Mountain Gorillas, White Rhinos, Kakapo Parrots, Baiji Dolphins before arriving at a bird sanctuary on Mauritius. This is the perfect ending of the book as Mauritius is where the Do-do became extinct and the parallel is drawn that if we don't want history to repeat then we must learn the lessons it teaches.

I read this book after enjoying Adam's Hitch Hiker and Dirk Gently books and although this is very different to them the brilliance of his writing shines through and we are entertained whilst the message is hammered home. So long and thanks for all the facts...



If you only ever read one book - make it this one., 28 Jul 2007
It is hilarious - it is sad - how can you cry and laugh at the same time? Read about the Kakapo!
I bought and read this book the week it was released. I quoted from it this afternoon. My 6 year old son asked me about Kimodo dragons - he wants one for his birthday - I could explain exactly why I was saying no. I think that although this book is over 15 years old it is extremely relevant to today. We must learn about our disappearing world - this is the easiest, funniest and most painless ways to do it. I hope Douglas and Mark were as proud of this book as I am of their writing it. Every week we lose hundreds of species - I'm not the conservation gestapo, however I do think more about what I do to the world since I read this book. Maybe you will too.

Last Chance to See, 11 Sep 2006
Most readers will probably be more familiar with Douglas Adams fictional output, but any fans of Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy et al would be making a grave mistake if they failed to investigate this book. Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine's globe-trotting journey to visit some of the most endangered species on the planet is not only a thought-provoking treatise on the plight of extinction but also a funny and warm travelogue, with Adams playing the role of perpetually bemused Englishman abroad. Amusing, insightful, important and highly readable.

Don't blink!, 17 Jul 2006
Somewhere in the depths of its vast corporate wisdom, the Guardian/Observer news organisation found a pearl of good sense. The pearl hatched a precious jewel of an idea. Send Douglas Adams, creator of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, accompanied by zoologist Mark Carwadine, to seek out some of the Earth's disappearing species. His account is classic Adams, with vivid description, poignant observations and incisive study of the people and places he encountered. The age of this book is of small account, even with the "Mark's Last Word" update segment closing the book. The book remains a pleasure to read.

Starting by his admission that he was "entirely qualified" for his role as "an extremely ignorant non-zoologist", Adams then describes their visit to Madagascar to find the aye-aye. A nocturnal lemur that "seems to be assembled from bits of other animals". He notes that the island was bypassed by the monkeys due to continental drift. It was the lemurs that occupied the aboreal environment. This was fine for the lemus until a different monkey, humans, arrived and began cutting down the trees. The lemurs, having fewer places left to hide, are increasingly constrained for habitat. This, of course, is the theme of the entire book.

The touring team moves through Southeast Asia to view the komodo, which may be the origin of the many "dragon" myths. Komodos are eating machines. Adams description of the way tourists are entertained by feasting komodos isn't something for the squeamish. Yet as he rightly points out, there is a tourist dollar factor to consider in how some disappearing species are to be saved. Government action is to be considered, but when wildlife becomes symbolic to a regime, endangered animals are just as likely to be further threatened. A "Leapordskin Pillbox Hat" resting on a President's head isn't the best example of conservation of species.

Of all the poignant accounts in this narrative, the kakapo must rate very high in our concern. Adams sets the scene with a vivid description of New Zealand's South Island - a place to "make your brain quiver". Landing a helicopter in that landscape also makes the brain quiver as Adams account of flying onto a ridge top demonstrates. His radio operator refuses to look over the edge while interviewing the pilot. But all the skilful piloting is of no avail as the team seeks the object of their quest. A strange, flightless bird, whose mating call was like "A Heartbeat in the Night", no longer offers his call from the ridge top. The kakapo, which inhabited the mountains for millennia, mate infrequently in a courtship beset with difficulties. With no natural predators, they failed to adapt to human-introduced dogs, cats and rats. Consequently, the population is down to about forty individuals when Adams visited New Zealand. In this case, a government has expended much effort in protecting this plump, lonely bird. An island suffered an extinction due to New Zealand's conservation efforts - it killed every cat on it. Free of predators, the island is now home to all the kakapos in existence. Every parrot bears a number tag, and a name. We meet finger-chewing Ralph whose sharp, powerful beak that never did duty as a defensive weapon.

Adams travelled to Africa to find rhinos and China to locate baiji dolphins in the murky Yangtze River. The rhinos almost escaped his gaze, but the baiji remained out of sight. The silty river caused the dolphins to adapt their hearing to life in the dark, but the multitude of noises created by human boats confuse them. The slaughter of dolphins by boat propellers is exterminating them. More active disturbances by our species have already extinguished the dodo on the island of Mauritius. Other species face similar fates. Adams encounters one of conservation's more exotic figures, Carl Jones [who also received attention from David Quammen in "Song of the Dodo"]. Jones' methods of preserving the Mauritius kestrel provides Adams with one of the most hilarious accounts in the book. How well Jones has succeeded remains to be determined.

The book is a delightful read, but that doesn't distract from the seriousness of the issue, nor Adams dedication to species preservation. Graced with some enchanting photographs, this highly personalised account still captures the reader's heart. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Superbly brilliant..., 07 Nov 2005
I was recommended this book as part of my ecotourism degree and the more i read, the less i could put it down. It was a superb insight into the world we know so little about under the surface. An interesting, highly informative read with an amusing side which never mocks the message but only contributes to the thought-provoking story that is the severity of the rapid disappearance of these unique animals.
A book to make you laugh and cry...

A wonderful insight into a wonderful couple., 20 Nov 2008
I bought this after reading excerpts in the Readers Digest.

It gives a great insight into a genuine couple and the love and extraordinary life they shared together fighting negative attitudes to save the animals they loved so much. There are some great photos too.

It made me laugh and cry too. Very brave of Terri to write this moving tribute to Steve - true wildlife warriors!

My only (slight) criticism is that it just seems too short and leaves you wanting to hear more of the Irwin's adventures together. However Terri does acknowledge that she had so many tales she could have told but they just had to be reduced to fit them into a publishable sized book! But for me a lot more of those tales would have been welcome.

Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

I just love Planet Earth!, 25 Oct 2008
It makes you want to travel around this beautiful world and forget about all the ugly and bad things that are happening on this planet.

Great completment to the series!, 10 Oct 2008
This is a very well made book about the series and compltements it well. As books do you can linger on the pages, read the explanatory notes in your own time and take it a page at a time.

Fills in loads of details about issues and facts that can only be glossed over on TV,


Simply Superb, 30 May 2008
This book describes the Earth in its truest sense, Not what we see every day, but what we should see and help protect.!! A spectacle. It appeals to every human soul, A delight to read it over and over again.

Recommended now and for generations to come..

Breathtaking,beautiful and at times thought provoking., 16 Dec 2007
This book is a portfolio of the best moments from the Planet earth series.It covers everything from the great sands to the shallow seas.11 different sections in total.I recieved it as a birthday gift and couldnt be more pleased with it. The photos are absolutely stunning and at times thought provoking.The lone polar bear surrounded by melting sea ice really did move me.I have looked at the photos time and time again and they are still as special as when i first saw them.If you love wildlife photography then i can't see how you could not enjoy this.Faultless.

Take a Chance on Douglas..., 30 Jul 2008
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine show us `more exotic wildlife than you'd be wise to shake a stick at' highlighting many of the species of animals on the verge of extinction in this excellent book which is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1990.

Originally commissioned to write an article for the Observer newspaper on the virtually extinct Aye-Aye Lemur in 1985 Douglas and Mark teamed up four years later to make `Last Chance to See...' initially as a Radio programme and then written up as this highly entertaining and informative book. We go on a trip to see Komodo Dragons, Mountain Gorillas, White Rhinos, Kakapo Parrots, Baiji Dolphins before arriving at a bird sanctuary on Mauritius. This is the perfect ending of the book as Mauritius is where the Do-do became extinct and the parallel is drawn that if we don't want history to repeat then we must learn the lessons it teaches.

I read this book after enjoying Adam's Hitch Hiker and Dirk Gently books and although this is very different to them the brilliance of his writing shines through and we are entertained whilst the message is hammered home. So long and thanks for all the facts...



If you only ever read one book - make it this one., 28 Jul 2007
It is hilarious - it is sad - how can you cry and laugh at the same time? Read about the Kakapo!
I bought and read this book the week it was released. I quoted from it this afternoon. My 6 year old son asked me about Kimodo dragons - he wants one for his birthday - I could explain exactly why I was saying no. I think that although this book is over 15 years old it is extremely relevant to today. We must learn about our disappearing world - this is the easiest, funniest and most painless ways to do it. I hope Douglas and Mark were as proud of this book as I am of their writing it. Every week we lose hundreds of species - I'm not the conservation gestapo, however I do think more about what I do to the world since I read this book. Maybe you will too.

Last Chance to See, 11 Sep 2006
Most readers will probably be more familiar with Douglas Adams fictional output, but any fans of Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy et al would be making a grave mistake if they failed to investigate this book. Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine's globe-trotting journey to visit some of the most endangered species on the planet is not only a thought-provoking treatise on the plight of extinction but also a funny and warm travelogue, with Adams playing the role of perpetually bemused Englishman abroad. Amusing, insightful, important and highly readable.

Don't blink!, 17 Jul 2006
Somewhere in the depths of its vast corporate wisdom, the Guardian/Observer news organisation found a pearl of good sense. The pearl hatched a precious jewel of an idea. Send Douglas Adams, creator of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, accompanied by zoologist Mark Carwadine, to seek out some of the Earth's disappearing species. His account is classic Adams, with vivid description, poignant observations and incisive study of the people and places he encountered. The age of this book is of small account, even with the "Mark's Last Word" update segment closing the book. The book remains a pleasure to read.

Starting by his admission that he was "entirely qualified" for his role as "an extremely ignorant non-zoologist", Adams then describes their visit to Madagascar to find the aye-aye. A nocturnal lemur that "seems to be assembled from bits of other animals". He notes that the island was bypassed by the monkeys due to continental drift. It was the lemurs that occupied the aboreal environment. This was fine for the lemus until a different monkey, humans, arrived and began cutting down the trees. The lemurs, having fewer places left to hide, are increasingly constrained for habitat. This, of course, is the theme of the entire book.

The touring team moves through Southeast Asia to view the komodo, which may be the origin of the many "dragon" myths. Komodos are eating machines. Adams description of the way tourists are entertained by feasting komodos isn't something for the squeamish. Yet as he rightly points out, there is a tourist dollar factor to consider in how some disappearing species are to be saved. Government action is to be considered, but when wildlife becomes symbolic to a regime, endangered animals are just as likely to be further threatened. A "Leapordskin Pillbox Hat" resting on a President's head isn't the best example of conservation of species.

Of all the poignant accounts in this narrative, the kakapo must rate very high in our concern. Adams sets the scene with a vivid description of New Zealand's South Island - a place to "make your brain quiver". Landing a helicopter in that landscape also makes the brain quiver as Adams account of flying onto a ridge top demonstrates. His radio operator refuses to look over the edge while interviewing the pilot. But all the skilful piloting is of no avail as the team seeks the object of their quest. A strange, flightless bird, whose mating call was like "A Heartbeat in the Night", no longer offers his call from the ridge top. The kakapo, which inhabited the mountains for millennia, mate infrequently in a courtship beset with difficulties. With no natural predators, they failed to adapt to human-introduced dogs, cats and rats. Consequently, the population is down to about forty individuals when Adams visited New Zealand. In this case, a government has expended much effort in protecting this plump, lonely bird. An island suffered an extinction due to New Zealand's conservation efforts - it killed every cat on it. Free of predators, the island is now home to all the kakapos in existence. Every parrot bears a number tag, and a name. We meet finger-chewing Ralph whose sharp, powerful beak that never did duty as a defensive weapon.

Adams travelled to Africa to find rhinos and China to locate baiji dolphins in the murky Yangtze River. The rhinos almost escaped his gaze, but the baiji remained out of sight. The silty river caused the dolphins to adapt their hearing to life in the dark, but the multitude of noises created by human boats confuse them. The slaughter of dolphins by boat propellers is exterminating them. More active disturbances by our species have already extinguished the dodo on the island of Mauritius. Other species face similar fates. Adams encounters one of conservation's more exotic figures, Carl Jones [who also received attention from David Quammen in "Song of the Dodo"]. Jones' methods of preserving the Mauritius kestrel provides Adams with one of the most hilarious accounts in the book. How well Jones has succeeded remains to be determined.

The book is a delightful read, but that doesn't distract from the seriousness of the issue, nor Adams dedication to species preservation. Graced with some enchanting photographs, this highly personalised account still captures the reader's heart. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Superbly brilliant..., 07 Nov 2005
I was recommended this book as part of my ecotourism degree and the more i read, the less i could put it down. It was a superb insight into the world we know so little about under the surface. An interesting, highly informative read with an amusing side which never mocks the message but only contributes to the thought-provoking story that is the severity of the rapid disappearance of these unique animals.
A book to make you laugh and cry...

A wonderful insight into a wonderful couple., 20 Nov 2008
I bought this after reading excerpts in the Readers Digest.

It gives a great insight into a genuine couple and the love and extraordinary life they shared together fighting negative attitudes to save the animals they loved so much. There are some great photos too.

It made me laugh and cry too. Very brave of Terri to write this moving tribute to Steve - true wildlife warriors!

My only (slight) criticism is that it just seems too short and leaves you wanting to hear more of the Irwin's adventures together. However Terri does acknowledge that she had so many tales she could have told but they just had to be reduced to fit them into a publishable sized book! But for me a lot more of those tales would have been welcome.

An important book, 14 Mar 2007
An important book for anyone who wants to know about the diversity of life, why it matters, the impact of human activity upon it and how we can protect it. I don't know about required reading in schools but it should certainly be required reading for all those politicians who are now proudly professing their green credentials. If you haven't already, I would recommend getting the latest edition of the book - I have a 1992 print and it is a little dated in certain areas such as those that refer to extinction events and the human genome project.

A calm and balanced view of biodiversity and extinction, 19 Apr 2004
If you watch nature programmes, Edward O Wilson is one of those intrepid biologists you see fairly frequently, looking serious and concerned, dressed for the jungle and being interviewed about deforestation, biodiversity, ecology and so on. He's one of my favourite "talking heads", along with the likes of David Attenborough. This is the first time I've read one of his books and I found it fascinating. His writing style is not as easy and fluent as some other writers I could mention. The best plain English writer in this general area (well, close enough: evolutionary biology, which is just as potentially technical and complicated) is Richard Dawkins, in my opinion. But Mr Wilson's style gets easier after a couple of chapters as you settle into his flow.

There's a comprehensive Foreword and, at the end there are Notes, a Glossary and an Index. the body of the book is divided into 3 sections:

1) "Violent Nature, Resilient Life" covers the destructive forces of nature such as those that have wiped out vast numbers of species in the past and describes how life clings on and returns to repopulate zones of devastation.

2) "Biodiversity Rising" covers the generation of biodiversity: how and why new species evolve; the time this takes; potential extent of the diversity in various types of habitat.

3) "The Human Impact" covers the ways humans have driven and are driving species to extinction, the speed of destruction, the time it would take to re-establish a high level of biodiversity, the possible consequences of severe reduction in biodiversity for life on earth and humanity in particular, and what can be done to slow down and reverse the impoverishment trend.

The author presents his facts and lays out the case for conservation in a very cool and logical way. He doesn't give the impression of emotional over-reaction that some people in government and industry (those with a strong economic interest) accuse environmentalists of showing. The case set out in this book is chillingly clear and convincing. It's a subject that should concern everyone on the planet so I recommend this book to all of them.

Masterpiece, 02 Nov 2003
If there's one book that changed my life this is it. The book starts with an almost poetic style. From page one, the author's incredible description of a moonless night in the Amazon jungle transports you there. You are reminded that whilst humans sleep at night, most animals have just begun their activities. Everything we always took for granted is looked at from several different angles throughout the book. Simple facts become beautifully interwound in the web of life. More importantly however, are the simple alternatives and solutions the author presents to our way of life which is rapidly eroding the natural habitat that we depend on for our survival. Books like these should be made compulsory at shcool. Oh, couldn't we substitute those bibles in hotel drawers with this book?

You'll want to be a biologist!, 26 Jan 1997

Wilson writes a great overview of biodiversity--how it is created, why it is crucial to human survival, and what we must do to preserve it. Enjoy accessible and well-documented writing that takes you from California to Madagascar, from the present to the beginnings of life as known from the fossil record. Along the way you'll learn many of the crucial ecological and evolutionary concepts (such as natural selection, community ecology, biogeography, and more) necessary for understanding what biodiversity is and how it is maintained. And finally, in the last part of the book, learn about philosophies and practices that will enable each of us to preserve the amazing diversity of life that surrounds us. You'll want to be a biologist by the time you finish the book!

Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

I just love Planet Earth!, 25 Oct 2008
It makes you want to travel around this beautiful world and forget about all the ugly and bad things that are happening on this planet.

Great completment to the series!, 10 Oct 2008
This is a very well made book about the series and compltements it well. As books do you can linger on the pages, read the explanatory notes in your own time and take it a page at a time.

Fills in loads of details about issues and facts that can only be glossed over on TV,


Simply Superb, 30 May 2008
This book describes the Earth in its truest sense, Not what we see every day, but what we should see and help protect.!! A spectacle. It appeals to every human soul, A delight to read it over and over again.

Recommended now and for generations to come..

Breathtaking,beautiful and at times thought provoking., 16 Dec 2007
This book is a portfolio of the best moments from the Planet earth series.It covers everything from the great sands to the shallow seas.11 different sections in total.I recieved it as a birthday gift and couldnt be more pleased with it. The photos are absolutely stunning and at times thought provoking.The lone polar bear surrounded by melting sea ice really did move me.I have looked at the photos time and time again and they are still as special as when i first saw them.If you love wildlife photography then i can't see how you could not enjoy this.Faultless.

Take a Chance on Douglas..., 30 Jul 2008
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine show us `more exotic wildlife than you'd be wise to shake a stick at' highlighting many of the species of animals on the verge of extinction in this excellent book which is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1990.

Originally commissioned to write an article for the Observer newspaper on the virtually extinct Aye-Aye Lemur in 1985 Douglas and Mark teamed up four years later to make `Last Chance to See...' initially as a Radio programme and then written up as this highly entertaining and informative book. We go on a trip to see Komodo Dragons, Mountain Gorillas, White Rhinos, Kakapo Parrots, Baiji Dolphins before arriving at a bird sanctuary on Mauritius. This is the perfect ending of the book as Mauritius is where the Do-do became extinct and the parallel is drawn that if we don't want history to repeat then we must learn the lessons it teaches.

I read this book after enjoying Adam's Hitch Hiker and Dirk Gently books and although this is very different to them the brilliance of his writing shines through and we are entertained whilst the message is hammered home. So long and thanks for all the facts...



If you only ever read one book - make it this one., 28 Jul 2007
It is hilarious - it is sad - how can you cry and laugh at the same time? Read about the Kakapo!
I bought and read this book the week it was released. I quoted from it this afternoon. My 6 year old son asked me about Kimodo dragons - he wants one for his birthday - I could explain exactly why I was saying no. I think that although this book is over 15 years old it is extremely relevant to today. We must learn about our disappearing world - this is the easiest, funniest and most painless ways to do it. I hope Douglas and Mark were as proud of this book as I am of their writing it. Every week we lose hundreds of species - I'm not the conservation gestapo, however I do think more about what I do to the world since I read this book. Maybe you will too.

Last Chance to See, 11 Sep 2006
Most readers will probably be more familiar with Douglas Adams fictional output, but any fans of Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy et al would be making a grave mistake if they failed to investigate this book. Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine's globe-trotting journey to visit some of the most endangered species on the planet is not only a thought-provoking treatise on the plight of extinction but also a funny and warm travelogue, with Adams playing the role of perpetually bemused Englishman abroad. Amusing, insightful, important and highly readable.

Don't blink!, 17 Jul 2006
Somewhere in the depths of its vast corporate wisdom, the Guardian/Observer news organisation found a pearl of good sense. The pearl hatched a precious jewel of an idea. Send Douglas Adams, creator of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, accompanied by zoologist Mark Carwadine, to seek out some of the Earth's disappearing species. His account is classic Adams, with vivid description, poignant observations and incisive study of the people and places he encountered. The age of this book is of small account, even with the "Mark's Last Word" update segment closing the book. The book remains a pleasure to read.

Starting by his admission that he was "entirely qualified" for his role as "an extremely ignorant non-zoologist", Adams then describes their visit to Madagascar to find the aye-aye. A nocturnal lemur that "seems to be assembled from bits of other animals". He notes that the island was bypassed by the monkeys due to continental drift. It was the lemurs that occupied the aboreal environment. This was fine for the lemus until a different monkey, humans, arrived and began cutting down the trees. The lemurs, having fewer places left to hide, are increasingly constrained for habitat. This, of course, is the theme of the entire book.

The touring team moves through Southeast Asia to view the komodo, which may be the origin of the many "dragon" myths. Komodos are eating machines. Adams description of the way tourists are entertained by feasting komodos isn't something for the squeamish. Yet as he rightly points out, there is a tourist dollar factor to consider in how some disappearing species are to be saved. Government action is to be considered, but when wildlife becomes symbolic to a regime, endangered animals are just as likely to be further threatened. A "Leapordskin Pillbox Hat" resting on a President's head isn't the best example of conservation of species.

Of all the poignant accounts in this narrative, the kakapo must rate very high in our concern. Adams sets the scene with a vivid description of New Zealand's South Island - a place to "make your brain quiver". Landing a helicopter in that landscape also makes the brain quiver as Adams account of flying onto a ridge top demonstrates. His radio operator refuses to look over the edge while interviewing the pilot. But all the skilful piloting is of no avail as the team seeks the object of their quest. A strange, flightless bird, whose mating call was like "A Heartbeat in the Night", no longer offers his call from the ridge top. The kakapo, which inhabited the mountains for millennia, mate infrequently in a courtship beset with difficulties. With no natural predators, they failed to adapt to human-introduced dogs, cats and rats. Consequently, the population is down to about forty individuals when Adams visited New Zealand. In this case, a government has expended much effort in protecting this plump, lonely bird. An island suffered an extinction due to New Zealand's conservation efforts - it killed every cat on it. Free of predators, the island is now home to all the kakapos in existence. Every parrot bears a number tag, and a name. We meet finger-chewing Ralph whose sharp, powerful beak that never did duty as a defensive weapon.

Adams travelled to Africa to find rhinos and China to locate baiji dolphins in the murky Yangtze River. The rhinos almost escaped his gaze, but the baiji remained out of sight. The silty river caused the dolphins to adapt their hearing to life in the dark, but the multitude of noises created by human boats confuse them. The slaughter of dolphins by boat propellers is exterminating them. More active disturbances by our species have already extinguished the dodo on the island of Mauritius. Other species face similar fates. Adams encounters one of conservation's more exotic figures, Carl Jones [who also received attention from David Quammen in "Song of the Dodo"]. Jones' methods of preserving the Mauritius kestrel provides Adams with one of the most hilarious accounts in the book. How well Jones has succeeded remains to be determined.

The book is a delightful read, but that doesn't distract from the seriousness of the issue, nor Adams dedication to species preservation. Graced with some enchanting photographs, this highly personalised account still captures the reader's heart. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Superbly brilliant..., 07 Nov 2005
I was recommended this book as part of my ecotourism degree and the more i read, the less i could put it down. It was a superb insight into the world we know so little about under the surface. An interesting, highly informative read with an amusing side which never mocks the message but only contributes to the thought-provoking story that is the severity of the rapid disappearance of these unique animals.
A book to make you laugh and cry...

A wonderful insight into a wonderful couple., 20 Nov 2008
I bought this after reading excerpts in the Readers Digest.

It gives a great insight into a genuine couple and the love and extraordinary life they shared together fighting negative attitudes to save the animals they loved so much. There are some great photos too.

It made me laugh and cry too. Very brave of Terri to write this moving tribute to Steve - true wildlife warriors!

My only (slight) criticism is that it just seems too short and leaves you wanting to hear more of the Irwin's adventures together. However Terri does acknowledge that she had so many tales she could have told but they just had to be reduced to fit them into a publishable sized book! But for me a lot more of those tales would have been welcome.

An important book, 14 Mar 2007
An important book for anyone who wants to know about the diversity of life, why it matters, the impact of human activity upon it and how we can protect it. I don't know about required reading in schools but it should certainly be required reading for all those politicians who are now proudly professing their green credentials. If you haven't already, I would recommend getting the latest edition of the book - I have a 1992 print and it is a little dated in certain areas such as those that refer to extinction events and the human genome project.

A calm and balanced view of biodiversity and extinction, 19 Apr 2004
If you watch nature programmes, Edward O Wilson is one of those intrepid biologists you see fairly frequently, looking serious and concerned, dressed for the jungle and being interviewed about deforestation, biodiversity, ecology and so on. He's one of my favourite "talking heads", along with the likes of David Attenborough. This is the first time I've read one of his books and I found it fascinating. His writing style is not as easy and fluent as some other writers I could mention. The best plain English writer in this general area (well, close enough: evolutionary biology, which is just as potentially technical and complicated) is Richard Dawkins, in my opinion. But Mr Wilson's style gets easier after a couple of chapters as you settle into his flow.

There's a comprehensive Foreword and, at the end there are Notes, a Glossary and an Index. the body of the book is divided into 3 sections:

1) "Violent Nature, Resilient Life" covers the destructive forces of nature such as those that have wiped out vast numbers of species in the past and describes how life clings on and returns to repopulate zones of devastation.

2) "Biodiversity Rising" covers the generation of biodiversity: how and why new species evolve; the time this takes; potential extent of the diversity in various types of habitat.

3) "The Human Impact" covers the ways humans have driven and are driving species to extinction, the speed of destruction, the time it would take to re-establish a high level of biodiversity, the possible consequences of severe reduction in biodiversity for life on earth and humanity in particular, and what can be done to slow down and reverse the impoverishment trend.

The author presents his facts and lays out the case for conservation in a very cool and logical way. He doesn't give the impression of emotional over-reaction that some people in government and industry (those with a strong economic interest) accuse environmentalists of showing. The case set out in this book is chillingly clear and convincing. It's a subject that should concern everyone on the planet so I recommend this book to all of them.

Masterpiece, 02 Nov 2003
If there's one book that changed my life this is it. The book starts with an almost poetic style. From page one, the author's incredible description of a moonless night in the Amazon jungle transports you there. You are reminded that whilst humans sleep at night, most animals have just begun their activities. Everything we always took for granted is looked at from several different angles throughout the book. Simple facts become beautifully interwound in the web of life. More importantly however, are the simple alternatives and solutions the author presents to our way of life which is rapidly eroding the natural habitat that we depend on for our survival. Books like these should be made compulsory at shcool. Oh, couldn't we substitute those bibles in hotel drawers with this book?

You'll want to be a biologist!, 26 Jan 1997

Wilson writes a great overview of biodiversity--how it is created, why it is crucial to human survival, and what we must do to preserve it. Enjoy accessible and well-documented writing that takes you from California to Madagascar, from the present to the beginnings of life as known from the fossil record. Along the way you'll learn many of the crucial ecological and evolutionary concepts (such as natural selection, community ecology, biogeography, and more) necessary for understanding what biodiversity is and how it is maintained. And finally, in the last part of the book, learn about philosophies and practices that will enable each of us to preserve the amazing diversity of life that surrounds us. You'll want to be a biologist by the time you finish the book!

Great secrets revealed by a great artist., 13 Dec 2004
When it comes to artwork, I have always admired that which is so accurate it could almost be a photograph - emphasis on "almost." The shipwreck paintings in Bob Ballard's books are a good example of this. When it comes to wildlife - especially African wildlife, however, I can think of no artist in the entire world other than David Shepherd who can make his subjects come to life on a piece of canvass. He does the same with portraits, landscapes, aircraft, famous ships and glorious steam engines. One of his paintings of British paratroopers in action (Suez 1956) hangs in the Officers' Mess of 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment.

There is, therefore, far more to David Shepherd's work than just the elephants for which he has become particularly famous. In addition, he has such a passion for the subjects he paints that he founded the "David Shepherd Conservation Foundation" through which he has channelled enormous funds towards helping and protecting endangered species of the world. How often do we find him on radio and television as he continually draws attention to this subject and that plight.

"Painting with David Shepherd" is not any old "how to" book. This is a book where one of Britain's most popular and successful artists shares his secrets in order to help other artists with their work. Whilst those who know something about this man may well have expected to find a picture of one of his Elephant paintings on the front cover, be assured, this is not all about wildlife. After an informative introduction in which he suggests the reader be prepared to completely re-think their traditional approaches to oil painting, we find sections on; Materials & methods, sketchbook, wildlife, landscapes, trains, boats & planes, the past and portraits. I particularly liked the way in which he draws the readers attention to incidental detail - all of which goes towards the production of a great work of art.

In short, there is something in this book for every artist - be they well established or simply aspiring. I am not an artist - but I have also thoroughly enjoyed this book.

NM

Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

I just love Planet Earth!, 25 Oct 2008
It makes you want to travel around this beautiful world and forget about all the ugly and bad things that are happening on this planet.

Great completment to the series!, 10 Oct 2008
This is a very well made book about the series and compltements it well. As books do you can linger on the pages, read the explanatory notes in your own time and take it a page at a time.

Fills in loads of details about issues and facts that can only be glossed over on TV,


Simply Superb, 30 May 2008
This book describes the Earth in its truest sense, Not what we see every day, but what we should see and help protect.!! A spectacle. It appeals to every human soul, A delight to read it over and over again.

Recommended now and for generations to come..

Breathtaking,beautiful and at times thought provoking., 16 Dec 2007
This book is a portfolio of the best moments from the Planet earth series.It covers everything from the great sands to the shallow seas.11 different sections in total.I recieved it as a birthday gift and couldnt be more pleased with it. The photos are absolutely stunning and at times thought provoking.The lone polar bear surrounded by melting sea ice really did move me.I have looked at the photos time and time again and they are still as special as when i first saw them.If you love wildlife photography then i can't see how you could not enjoy this.Faultless.

Take a Chance on Douglas..., 30 Jul 2008
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine show us `more exotic wildlife than you'd be wise to shake a stick at' highlighting many of the species of animals on the verge of extinction in this excellent book which is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1990.

Originally commissioned to write an article for the Observer newspaper on the virtually extinct Aye-Aye Lemur in 1985 Douglas and Mark teamed up four years later to make `Last Chance to See...' initially as a Radio programme and then written up as this highly entertaining and informative book. We go on a trip to see Komodo Dragons, Mountain Gorillas, White Rhinos, Kakapo Parrots, Baiji Dolphins before arriving at a bird sanctuary on Mauritius. This is the perfect ending of the book as Mauritius is where the Do-do became extinct and the parallel is drawn that if we don't want history to repeat then we must learn the lessons it teaches.

I read this book after enjoying Adam's Hitch Hiker and Dirk Gently books and although this is very different to them the brilliance of his writing shines through and we are entertained whilst the message is hammered home. So long and thanks for all the facts...



If you only ever read one book - make it this one., 28 Jul 2007
It is hilarious - it is sad - how can you cry and laugh at the same time? Read about the Kakapo!
I bought and read this book the week it was released. I quoted from it this afternoon. My 6 year old son asked me about Kimodo dragons - he wants one for his birthday - I could explain exactly why I was saying no. I think that although this book is over 15 years old it is extremely relevant to today. We must learn about our disappearing world - this is the easiest, funniest and most painless ways to do it. I hope Douglas and Mark were as proud of this book as I am of their writing it. Every week we lose hundreds of species - I'm not the conservation gestapo, however I do think more about what I do to the world since I read this book. Maybe you will too.

Last Chance to See, 11 Sep 2006
Most readers will probably be more familiar with Douglas Adams fictional output, but any fans of Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy et al would be making a grave mistake if they failed to investigate this book. Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine's globe-trotting journey to visit some of the most endangered species on the planet is not only a thought-provoking treatise on the plight of extinction but also a funny and warm travelogue, with Adams playing the role of perpetually bemused Englishman abroad. Amusing, insightful, important and highly readable.

Don't blink!, 17 Jul 2006
Somewhere in the depths of its vast corporate wisdom, the Guardian/Observer news organisation found a pearl of good sense. The pearl hatched a precious jewel of an idea. Send Douglas Adams, creator of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, accompanied by zoologist Mark Carwadine, to seek out some of the Earth's disappearing species. His account is classic Adams, with vivid description, poignant observations and incisive study of the people and places he encountered. The age of this book is of small account, even with the "Mark's Last Word" update segment closing the book. The book remains a pleasure to read.

Starting by his admission that he was "entirely qualified" for his role as "an extremely ignorant non-zoologist", Adams then describes their visit to Madagascar to find the aye-aye. A nocturnal lemur that "seems to be assembled from bits of other animals". He notes that the island was bypassed by the monkeys due to continental drift. It was the lemurs that occupied the aboreal environment. This was fine for the lemus until a different monkey, humans, arrived and began cutting down the trees. The lemurs, having fewer places left to hide, are increasingly constrained for habitat. This, of course, is the theme of the entire book.

The touring team moves through Southeast Asia to view the komodo, which may be the origin of the many "dragon" myths. Komodos are eating machines. Adams description of the way tourists are entertained by feasting komodos isn't something for the squeamish. Yet as he rightly points out, there is a tourist dollar factor to consider in how some disappearing species are to be saved. Government action is to be considered, but when wildlife becomes symbolic to a regime, endangered animals are just as likely to be further threatened. A "Leapordskin Pillbox Hat" resting on a President's head isn't the best example of conservation of species.

Of all the poignant accounts in this narrative, the kakapo must rate very high in our concern. Adams sets the scene with a vivid description of New Zealand's South Island - a place to "make your brain quiver". Landing a helicopter in that landscape also makes the brain quiver as Adams account of flying onto a ridge top demonstrates. His radio operator refuses to look over the edge while interviewing the pilot. But all the skilful piloting is of no avail as the team seeks the object of their quest. A strange, flightless bird, whose mating call was like "A Heartbeat in the Night", no longer offers his call from the ridge top. The kakapo, which inhabited the mountains for millennia, mate infrequently in a courtship beset with difficulties. With no natural predators, they failed to adapt to human-introduced dogs, cats and rats. Consequently, the population is down to about forty individuals when Adams visited New Zealand. In this case, a government has expended much effort in protecting this plump, lonely bird. An island suffered an extinction due to New Zealand's conservation efforts - it killed every cat on it. Free of predators, the island is now home to all the kakapos in existence. Every parrot bears a number tag, and a name. We meet finger-chewing Ralph whose sharp, powerful beak that never did duty as a defensive weapon.

Adams travelled to Africa to find rhinos and China to locate baiji dolphins in the murky Yangtze River. The rhinos almost escaped his gaze, but the baiji remained out of sight. The silty river caused the dolphins to adapt their hearing to life in the dark, but the multitude of noises created by human boats confuse them. The slaughter of dolphins by boat propellers is exterminating them. More active disturbances by our species have already extinguished the dodo on the island of Mauritius. Other species face similar fates. Adams encounters one of conservation's more exotic figures, Carl Jones [who also received attention from David Quammen in "Song of the Dodo"]. Jones' methods of preserving the Mauritius kestrel provides Adams with one of the most hilarious accounts in the book. How well Jones has succeeded remains to be determined.

The book is a delightful read, but that doesn't distract from the seriousness of the issue, nor Adams dedication to species preservation. Graced with some enchanting photographs, this highly personalised account still captures the reader's heart. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Superbly brilliant..., 07 Nov 2005
I was recommended this book as part of my ecotourism degree and the more i read, the less i could put it down. It was a superb insight into the world we know so little about under the surface. An interesting, highly informative read with an amusing side which never mocks the message but only contributes to the thought-provoking story that is the severity of the rapid disappearance of these unique animals.
A book to make you laugh and cry...

A wonderful insight into a wonderful couple., 20 Nov 2008
I bought this after reading excerpts in the Readers Digest.

It gives a great insight into a genuine couple and the love and extraordinary life they shared together fighting negative attitudes to save the animals they loved so much. There are some great photos too.

It made me laugh and cry too. Very brave of Terri to write this moving tribute to Steve - true wildlife warriors!

My only (slight) criticism is that it just seems too short and leaves you wanting to hear more of the Irwin's adventures together. However Terri does acknowledge that she had so many tales she could have told but they just had to be reduced to fit them into a publishable sized book! But for me a lot more of those tales would have been welcome.

An important book, 14 Mar 2007
An important book for anyone who wants to know about the diversity of life, why it matters, the impact of human activity upon it and how we can protect it. I don't know about required reading in schools but it should certainly be required reading for all those politicians who are now proudly professing their green credentials. If you haven't already, I would recommend getting the latest edition of the book - I have a 1992 print and it is a little dated in certain areas such as those that refer to extinction events and the human genome project.

A calm and balanced view of biodiversity and extinction, 19 Apr 2004
If you watch nature programmes, Edward O Wilson is one of those intrepid biologists you see fairly frequently, looking serious and concerned, dressed for the jungle and being interviewed about deforestation, biodiversity, ecology and so on. He's one of my favourite "talking heads", along with the likes of David Attenborough. This is the first time I've read one of his books and I found it fascinating. His writing style is not as easy and fluent as some other writers I could mention. The best plain English writer in this general area (well, close enough: evolutionary biology, which is just as potentially technical and complicated) is Richard Dawkins, in my opinion. But Mr Wilson's style gets easier after a couple of chapters as you settle into his flow.

There's a comprehensive Foreword and, at the end there are Notes, a Glossary and an Index. the body of the book is divided into 3 sections:

1) "Violent Nature, Resilient Life" covers the destructive forces of nature such as those that have wiped out vast numbers of species in the past and describes how life clings on and returns to repopulate zones of devastation.

2) "Biodiversity Rising" covers the generation of biodiversity: how and why new species evolve; the time this takes; potential extent of the diversity in various types of habitat.

3) "The Human Impact" covers the ways humans have driven and are driving species to extinction, the speed of destruction, the time it would take to re-establish a high level of biodiversity, the possible consequences of severe reduction in biodiversity for life on earth and humanity in particular, and what can be done to slow down and reverse the impoverishment trend.

The author presents his facts and lays out the case for conservation in a very cool and logical way. He doesn't give the impression of emotional over-reaction that some people in government and industry (those with a strong economic interest) accuse environmentalists of showing. The case set out in this book is chillingly clear and convincing. It's a subject that should concern everyone on the planet so I recommend this book to all of them.

Masterpiece, 02 Nov 2003
If there's one book that changed my life this is it. The book starts with an almost poetic style. From page one, the author's incredible description of a moonless night in the Amazon jungle transports you there. You are reminded that whilst humans sleep at night, most animals have just begun their activities. Everything we always took for granted is looked at from several different angles throughout the book. Simple facts become beautifully interwound in the web of life. More importantly however, are the simple alternatives and solutions the author presents to our way of life which is rapidly eroding the natural habitat that we depend on for our survival. Books like these should be made compulsory at shcool. Oh, couldn't we substitute those bibles in hotel drawers with this book?

You'll want to be a biologist!, 26 Jan 1997

Wilson writes a great overview of biodiversity--how it is created, why it is crucial to human survival, and what we must do to preserve it. Enjoy accessible and well-documented writing that takes you from California to Madagascar, from the present to the beginnings of life as known from the fossil record. Along the way you'll learn many of the crucial ecological and evolutionary concepts (such as natural selection, community ecology, biogeography, and more) necessary for understanding what biodiversity is and how it is maintained. And finally, in the last part of the book, learn about philosophies and practices that will enable each of us to preserve the amazing diversity of life that surrounds us. You'll want to be a biologist by the time you finish the book!

Great secrets revealed by a great artist., 13 Dec 2004
When it comes to artwork, I have always admired that which is so accurate it could almost be a photograph - emphasis on "almost." The shipwreck paintings in Bob Ballard's books are a good example of this. When it comes to wildlife - especially African wildlife, however, I can think of no artist in the entire world other than David Shepherd who can make his subjects come to life on a piece of canvass. He does the same with portraits, landscapes, aircraft, famous ships and glorious steam engines. One of his paintings of British paratroopers in action (Suez 1956) hangs in the Officers' Mess of 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment.

There is, therefore, far more to David Shepherd's work than just the elephants for which he has become particularly famous. In addition, he has such a passion for the subjects he paints that he founded the "David Shepherd Conservation Foundation" through which he has channelled enormous funds towards helping and protecting endangered species of the world. How often do we find him on radio and television as he continually draws attention to this subject and that plight.

"Painting with David Shepherd" is not any old "how to" book. This is a book where one of Britain's most popular and successful artists shares his secrets in order to help other artists with their work. Whilst those who know something about this man may well have expected to find a picture of one of his Elephant paintings on the front cover, be assured, this is not all about wildlife. After an informative introduction in which he suggests the reader be prepared to completely re-think their traditional approaches to oil painting, we find sections on; Materials & methods, sketchbook, wildlife, landscapes, trains, boats & planes, the past and portraits. I particularly liked the way in which he draws the readers attention to incidental detail - all of which goes towards the production of a great work of art.

In short, there is something in this book for every artist - be they well established or simply aspiring. I am not an artist - but I have also thoroughly enjoyed this book.

NM

One of the most important books of the year, 08 Dec 2007
Wow ... this book is a beautiful yet shocking look at our world today and some of its most wonderful and threatened places. Its a must read for anyone who cares about the planet, its great monuments and natural wonders. I found it by chance but am glad I did. The author takes the UNESCO World Heritage list and distills it down to 101 the most threatened places. Each page has a great intro and color map, plus pictures. This is an interesting mix of a coffee-table type book of beautiful full page pictures of fantastic destinations, yet with very serious issues and some shocking before and after photos of habitat loss and senseless destruction.

It covers lots of places and issues we all should know more about - I couldn't put it down and it has been a topic of frequent conversation ever since I got it. 5+ stars!

World's Heritage Sites under threat, 31 Oct 2007
This excellant book shows some of the best UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world and outlines what factors are putting these sites at risk. It is scary the number of people that visit some of the main sites like Petra, Angkor and Machu Picchu.

If you do not want to contribute to these increasing numbers but want to enjoy these places then this is a book for you. A great variety of photographs give a good impression of each place and also great maps show where they are in the world.

Lets just hope that these places are still there for future generations to enjoy.

Timely, persuasive and necessary, 25 Jul 2008
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.

Unique, valuable, objective; a fantastically GOOD book, 24 Jun 2008
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.

I just love Planet Earth!, 25 Oct 2008
It makes you want to travel around this beautiful world and forget about all the ugly and bad things that are happening on this planet.

Great completment to the series!, 10 Oct 2008
This is a very well made book about the series and compltements it well. As books do you can linger on the pages, read the explanatory notes in your own time and take it a page at a time.

Fills in loads of details about issues and facts that can only be glossed over on TV,


Simply Superb, 30 May 2008
This book describes the Earth in its truest sense, Not what we see every day, but what we should see and help protect.!! A spectacle. It appeals to every human soul, A delight to read it over and over again.

Recommended now and for generations to come..

Breathtaking,beautiful and at times thought provoking., 16 Dec 2007
This book is a portfolio of the best moments from the Planet earth series.It covers everything from the great sands to the shallow seas.11 different sections in total.I recieved it as a birthday gift and couldnt be more pleased with it. The photos are absolutely stunning and at times thought provoking.The lone polar bear surrounded by melting sea ice really did move me.I have looked at the photos time and time again and they are still as special as when i first saw them.If you love wildlife photography then i can't see how you could not enjoy this.Faultless.

Take a Chance on Douglas..., 30 Jul 2008
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine show us `more exotic wildlife than you'd be wise to shake a stick at' highlighting many of the species of animals on the verge of extinction in this excellent book which is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1990.

Originally commissioned to write an article for the Observer newspaper on the virtually extinct Aye-Aye Lemur in 1985 Douglas and Mark teamed up four years later to make `Last Chance to See...' initially as a Radio programme and then written up as this highly entertaining and informative book. We go on a trip to see Komodo Dragons, Mountain Gorillas, White Rhinos, Kakapo Parrots, Baiji Dolphins before arriving at a bird sanctuary on Mauritius. This is the perfect ending of the book as Mauritius is where the Do-do became extinct and the parallel is drawn that if we don't want history to repeat then we must learn the lessons it teaches.

I read this book after enjoying Adam's Hitch Hiker and Dirk Gently books and although this is very different to them the brilliance of his writing shines through and we are entertained whilst the message is hammered home. So long and thanks for all the facts...



If you only ever read one book - make it this one., 28 Jul 2007
It is