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Peter Scott: Painter and Naturalist
Described as the "father of conservation," Peter Scott led a crusade for endangered wildlife that captured the imagination of an entire generation and inspired many people to care about animals and their natural environments long before it was fashionable to do so. Behind Scott's charm and single-minded devotion to his chosen causes lies a complex character. Elspeth Huxley has written a wonderfully rich and readable biography, which will be important to anyone interested in the conservation of wildlife and the earth.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
384 pages, Paperback
First published February 2, 1994
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About the author
Elspeth Huxley
70 books71 followersElspeth Joscelin Huxley was an English writer, journalist, broadcaster, magistrate, environmentalist, farmer, and government adviser. She wrote over 40 books, including her best-known lyrical books, The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard, based on her youth in a coffee farm in British Kenya. Her husband, Gervas Huxley, was a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley and a cousin of Aldous Huxley.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 15, 2021
A couple of years ago, I picked up quite a few Reader's Digest books at a book fair that was held in the city. The only thing we had to pay for was a carton and we fill it with as many books as we can manage to. This particular story was one of the four that were a part of the Reader's Digest - Today's Best Non-fiction. The reason I opened this book was because I am really interested in wildlife (and nature in general) and I figured I could try reading non-fiction for a change.
I've never particularly enjoyed reading biographies, preferring to read fiction, mostly as a form of escapism. I'd considered them boring and rather like eulogies. Of course, autobiographies are another matter; I'd always liked reading them for the up-close-and-personal feel. This biography, however, of Peter Scott, is an exception.
I could not relate to most of the events of his life - although I could to his point of view on all things environmental - but I found myself completely absorbed by the story. Certainly, that is, in part, due to the style of Huxley's writing. It is crisp and to the point, coming across almost like a article in a newspaper. And yet, what makes it a story worth reading is the way it manages to engage the reader's emotions with anecdotes, making us smile and raise our eyebrows in amusement and disbelief at times.
Nowadays, most of the time, STEM academics is given the utmost importance while all other interests and talents take a back seat. No matter how good you are at them, most parents don't seem to encourage it, especially in Asian societies. Reading the book, he seems to have been given quite a lot of freedom from a young age to pursue whatever he enjoys that it seems borderline reckless, at times. But I suppose that's what made him... him. This story, it's a break from most of the success stories - of people in the STEM field. It's great knowing the story of a man who purposefully ventured into a different field and left a lasting impact in the world. His work made a difference in almost every field and the laws that are used to govern what is ethical and what isn't.
His work is especially relevant today. With awareness about climate change and threat to all the wild places comes the need to do something about it. And the need of the hour is to protect the environment as best as we can - it is what makes life possible on Earth.
(you can read the complete review here.)
I've never particularly enjoyed reading biographies, preferring to read fiction, mostly as a form of escapism. I'd considered them boring and rather like eulogies. Of course, autobiographies are another matter; I'd always liked reading them for the up-close-and-personal feel. This biography, however, of Peter Scott, is an exception.
I could not relate to most of the events of his life - although I could to his point of view on all things environmental - but I found myself completely absorbed by the story. Certainly, that is, in part, due to the style of Huxley's writing. It is crisp and to the point, coming across almost like a article in a newspaper. And yet, what makes it a story worth reading is the way it manages to engage the reader's emotions with anecdotes, making us smile and raise our eyebrows in amusement and disbelief at times.
Nowadays, most of the time, STEM academics is given the utmost importance while all other interests and talents take a back seat. No matter how good you are at them, most parents don't seem to encourage it, especially in Asian societies. Reading the book, he seems to have been given quite a lot of freedom from a young age to pursue whatever he enjoys that it seems borderline reckless, at times. But I suppose that's what made him... him. This story, it's a break from most of the success stories - of people in the STEM field. It's great knowing the story of a man who purposefully ventured into a different field and left a lasting impact in the world. His work made a difference in almost every field and the laws that are used to govern what is ethical and what isn't.
His work is especially relevant today. With awareness about climate change and threat to all the wild places comes the need to do something about it. And the need of the hour is to protect the environment as best as we can - it is what makes life possible on Earth.
(you can read the complete review here.)
December 26, 2017
Peter Scott is perhaps part of the final generation of largely self-taught naturalists who had a significant impact on both scientific knowledge and the popularity of conservation. Son of the explorer Robert Scott, Scott of the Antarctic. he faced the challenge of being the 'son of a legend' as the first chapter describes him, although despite his father's posthumous fame his widow Katherine and son lived in what was effectively that peculiarly Edwardian mix of genteel middle-class poverty.
His connections though probably helped him through a fairly well funded education, securing a place at Cambridge. It was here that he first encountered the wild fowl of the Fens, initially as a passionate wild fowler (It's worth remembering that, hard though we might now find it to understand, many of the late 19th century and realy 20th century naturalists came from hunting and shooting backgrounds; and although Scott ultimately gave up shooting, there's no doubting his respect for the traditional wild fowlers and hunters, of the Fens and elsewhere, who had deep and practical knowledge of the birds they hunted because their livelihoods depended on it).
Peter Scott's interests and activities were wide - ice skating; an Olympic yachtsman; and a glider pilot. During the war he was a decorated - if it woudl seem occasionally reckless - naval officer.
Post war, his interests in wildlife came to become his life, funded initially by his increasingly popular wildlife paintings. From a pre-war and wartime home on the Fens, he sought a new base for studying and keeping wildlife, establishing what became the first of several Wildfowl Trust bases at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. This became a popular source of entertainment and information for people on wildfowl, but at the same time Scott developed a much broader interest in conservation, leading to him with others founding the World Wildlife Fund - now renamed the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
His work lives on in the Trust he founded, in the work of WWF, and of course in his paintings of wildlife, which may not always please scholars of art, but are noticeable for their ability to present wild ducks and geese in particular in a way that is both scientifically accurate but also captures the movement and strange attraction of these complex birds. Today we see the popularity of nature conservation through documentaries such as those made by David Attenborough, but Peter Scott's work was critical to raising public awareness and in many ways laid the ground both for the modern conservation movement and for such works.
There's much to admire in his life, but also in the writing of this detailed but engaging biography.
The author, Elspeth Huxley, was herself married a cousin of writer Aldous Huxley, famous as a novelist in his own right, but also one of the sons of Thomas Henry Huxley, the 19th century biologist best known for his strong defence of Darwin's theories of evolution). His brother Sir Julian Huxley was the first secretary-general of UNESCO and a co-founder with Scott of the World Wildlife Fund.
His connections though probably helped him through a fairly well funded education, securing a place at Cambridge. It was here that he first encountered the wild fowl of the Fens, initially as a passionate wild fowler (It's worth remembering that, hard though we might now find it to understand, many of the late 19th century and realy 20th century naturalists came from hunting and shooting backgrounds; and although Scott ultimately gave up shooting, there's no doubting his respect for the traditional wild fowlers and hunters, of the Fens and elsewhere, who had deep and practical knowledge of the birds they hunted because their livelihoods depended on it).
Peter Scott's interests and activities were wide - ice skating; an Olympic yachtsman; and a glider pilot. During the war he was a decorated - if it woudl seem occasionally reckless - naval officer.
Post war, his interests in wildlife came to become his life, funded initially by his increasingly popular wildlife paintings. From a pre-war and wartime home on the Fens, he sought a new base for studying and keeping wildlife, establishing what became the first of several Wildfowl Trust bases at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. This became a popular source of entertainment and information for people on wildfowl, but at the same time Scott developed a much broader interest in conservation, leading to him with others founding the World Wildlife Fund - now renamed the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
His work lives on in the Trust he founded, in the work of WWF, and of course in his paintings of wildlife, which may not always please scholars of art, but are noticeable for their ability to present wild ducks and geese in particular in a way that is both scientifically accurate but also captures the movement and strange attraction of these complex birds. Today we see the popularity of nature conservation through documentaries such as those made by David Attenborough, but Peter Scott's work was critical to raising public awareness and in many ways laid the ground both for the modern conservation movement and for such works.
There's much to admire in his life, but also in the writing of this detailed but engaging biography.
The author, Elspeth Huxley, was herself married a cousin of writer Aldous Huxley, famous as a novelist in his own right, but also one of the sons of Thomas Henry Huxley, the 19th century biologist best known for his strong defence of Darwin's theories of evolution). His brother Sir Julian Huxley was the first secretary-general of UNESCO and a co-founder with Scott of the World Wildlife Fund.
September 14, 2016
Elspeth Huxley is a favorite writer of mine but this book is so full of detail that I kept wanting to stop. I'm glad I didn't. I cried at the end for the lost of such a great man
October 9, 2012
A fantastic life story. Slimbridge is a great place to visit and a great effort at conservation that has shown great results.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews