Charles Waterton 1782-1865

Charles Waterton was the first conservationist who fought to protect wild nature against the destruction and pollution of Victorian industrialisation. During his lifetime he was famous for his eccentricities but also for his achievements and his opinions. A Yorkshire landowner he turned his park into a sanctuary for animals and birds. As an explorer he learned to survive in the tropical rain forests of South America without a gun or the society of other white men. He was an authority on the poisons used by South American Indians and a taxidermist of note. The huge public that read his books included Dickens Darwin and Roosevelt. Since his death the memory of Waterton's personal eccenticities has flourished while the originality of his ideas and work has often suffered. Using his surviving papers Julia Blackburn has redressed the balance in a biogr aphy that restores Waterton to his place as the first conservationist of the modern age.

About the author

Julia Blackburn has written ten books of non-fiction, the most recent of which, Time Song, was shortlisted for the 2019 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize. Her family memoir The Three of Us won the 2009 J.R. Ackerley Award, and her two novels, The Book of Colour and The Leper’s Companions, were both shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She lives in Suffolk and Italy.

Product details

• Authors: Julia Blackburn, Blackburn Julia
• Publisher: Vintage
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 11.09.1997
• EAN: 9780099736004
• ISBN: 978-0-09-973600-4
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 17 mm
• Weight: 328 g
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); South America, Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection, SCIENCE / History, History of Science, Conservation of wildlife & habitats, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Medical (incl. Patients), Biography: science, technology and medicine, Conservation of wildlife and habitats, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Medical (inc Patients)