Life on Air - Hardcover

"There isn’t a single false note....Attenborough’s familiar voice comes through in every line." (Daily Telegraph)

"It’s almost impossible to believe that all these things happened to one man... But David Attenborough wears his achievements lightly and there as many laughs here as there are animals." (Michael Palin)

"An enthralling autobiography from one of the linchpins of television... Attenborough is a master story-teller, and his book is crammed with anecdotes." (Good Book Guide)

David Attenborough is one of the most influential and admired figures in English television. When 26, he applied for a job in the BBC – which then meant radio – and was promptly turned down. But someone saw his rejected application and asked, would he like to try television? He would, and sixty years later, he is still at it. Elegantly told, often very funny, here is his story.

At home there is his rise to controlling BBC2, introducing colour television to Britain, encounters with Montgomery, Anthony Eden, singers, athletes, explorers, the Queen, Benjamin Britten. Abroad there are people just as remarkable, journeys up tropical rivers, to the interior of New Guinea or the Australian outback, dragons, birds of paradise, flying snakes and walls of cockroaches.

Now updated to cover his work since 2009, Life on Air is a remarkable account of David Attenborough’s passion for the natural world and his lifelong quest to understand it. .