The Shark and the Albatross
Adventures of a wildlife film-maker
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- £4.49
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- £4.49
Publisher Description
For twenty years John Aitchison has been travelling the world to film wildlife for the BBC and other broadcasters, taking him to far-away places on every continent. The Shark and the Albatross is the story of these journeys of discovery, of his encounters with animals and occasional enterprising individuals in remote and sometimes dangerous places. His destinations include the far north and the far south, expeditions to film for Frozen Planet and other natural history series, in Svalbard, Alaska, the remote Atlantic island of South Georgia and the Antarctic. They also encompass wild places in India, China and the United States. In all he finds and describes key moments in the lives of animals, among them polar bears and penguins, seals and whales, sharks and birds, and wolves and lynxes.
He reveals what happens behind the scenes and beyond the camera. He explains the practicalities and challenges of the filming process, and the problems of survival in perilous places. He records touching moments and dramatic incidents, some ending in success, others desperately sad. There are times when a hunted animal triumphs against the odds, and others when, in spite of preparation for every outcome, disaster strikes. And, as the author shows in several incidents that combine nail-biting tension with hair-raising hilarity, disaster can strike for film-makers too.
This is natural history writing at its absolute best: evocative, informative and gripping from first to last.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Aitchison, whose cinematography awards include an Emmy and a BAFTA, writes that filming wildlife in its tooth-and-claw glory reveals the very real struggle between humankind and the environment. To open this collection of wonderfully descriptive essays, he recounts the time he documented young albatrosses as they struggled to avoid the gaping maws of cruising sharks. Tempting though it was to take sides in this conflict, Aitchison writes that it was far more disturbing to see dead albatross chicks that had choked to death on plastic refuse. "The most important choice is not whether we prefer predators or prey," he writes, "it's whether we are on nature's side or against it: whether we want the shark and the albatross, or neither." Aitchison weaves this narrative thread through 14 chapters. His prose is clear and poetic as he describes running with wolf packs in Yellowstone National Park, witnessing a whale feeding frenzy in Alaska's northern sea, and encountering endangered tigers in India's dense forests, among other adventures around the globe. Throughout, Aitchison notes that observing wildlife highlights the precariousness of the natural world. This book will interest those drawn to filmmaking as well as to wildlife and the environment.