ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Sir John Lister Kaye is a writer, conservationist, lecturer and Director of Aigas Field Centre

John Lister-Kaye has spent a lifetime exploring, protecting and celebrating the British landscape and its wildlife.

John came to live in the Highlands of Scotland in 1968 to work with the celebrated author and naturalist Gavin Maxwell of Ring and Bright Water fame.

In 2001 he was awarded an OBE for his services to nature conservation and he has recently received honorary doctorates from two Scottish universities for his contribution to nature writing.

In 2016 he was awarded the inaugural Writers Prize by the Richard Jeffries Society for “Gods of the Morning”, published in 2015. In the same year he was awarded the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Geddes Award for services to conservation and made an honorary fellow of the RSGS

At this free talk and coffee morning John will discuss two books, Dun Cow Rib, about joyous childhood holidays – spent scrambling through hedges and ditches after birds and small beasts, keeping pigeons in the loft and tracking foxes around the edge of the garden – were the perfect apprenticeship for his two lifelong passions: exploring the wonders of nature, and writing about them.

Warm, wise and full of wonder, The Dun Cow Rib is a captivating coming of age tale by one of the founding fathers of nature writing.

ABOUT THE HOST

The event will be chaired by Jackie McGlone, journalist and regular host of author events at the British Library in London, Edinburgh International Book Festival and at various venues in New York.