Life On Air

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David Attenborough

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Pages: 384 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 0563534613

Pub: BBC Books

Pub date: 2002-09-19

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 210186

Editorial Review:

David Attenborough hardly needs any introduction; his voice has accompanied so many of the best natural history programs that have graced our televisions over several decades. Life On Air, his autobiography, tells the story of how he has managed to professionalise his schoolboy interests in such a remarkably successful way.
Attenborough's Life On Air began in 1950, having taken a degree in Natural Sciences in the University of Cambridge, done National Service in the Navy, got married, done a year as an editor with an educational publisher, had a son and then answered a BBC recruiting ad in the Times. Turned down for BBC Radio, he was offered a traineeship in BBC TV which was pioneering the medium in Britain and he has never looked back. The rest is TV history and you can read Sir David's personal view of it all in his engaging and highly entertaining book.
This is no boring story of the rise and rise of a media mogul in the smoke-filled rooms of Ally Pally and Lime Grove. Having served his apprenticeship producing programmes like Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and Song Hunter with the famous American folk singer and song collector Alan Lomax, he managed to escape from the confines of overlit studios into the natural world. Zoo Quest began in 1954 with an animal collecting trip to Sierra Leone and David Attenborough had found his metier. Since then he has managed to bring the wonders of the natural world into millions of living rooms around the world and to reach general audiences without patronising them, without any spurious antics, silly voices or dumbing down. His animal and plant subjects are the stars, Attenborough is the master of ceremonies who introduces the acts for our wonder and amazement. But his scope extends way beyond the birds and the bees.
In the 1960s, it was suggested that he took up an administrative post--"after all, you won't want to be gallivanting around the world when you are 50". Fortunately, he did not abandon gallivanting for admin but went freelance, studied anthropology and helped extend our view of native peoples and sympathies for their life styles. He went on to become responsible for coming up with famous BBC TV series such as Kenneth Clark's incredibly successful Civilisation series, followed by Bronowski's The Ascent of Man. Inevitably, he did become one of the BBC suits but one that wore a camouflage jacket.

What is remarkable is that Attenborough has managed to do it for so long without really changing his own style too much. He has not had to because the technology has changed and so he has constantly been able to give new views and insights into the details of life on Earth. Writing pretty much as he speaks, it is easy to hear his voice, dry sense of humour and generosity coming through all the time. Do not expect to read personal details, navel-gazing or malicious gossip--that is not his style. The only personal note comes at the end with the death of his wife in 1997. Over 100 photos associated with the huge range of programmes he has been intimately involved with decorate Life On Air, a fascinating personal story of our times. He says that he knows of "no pleasure deeper than that which comes from contemplating the natural world and trying to understand it"; he certainly manages to convey that in Life On Air. --Douglas Palmer

Reader Reviews:

Good Show (0/0 people found this helpful)

Sir David Attenborough has has a hugely successful life by any standards. He has produced pioneering television, achieved high office at the BBC, is recognised as highly influential in his chosen field, has written numerous books, has been knighted, is instantly recognisable, has travelled extensively doing work he obviously loves.

It must have been difficult for him to decide how to start this book, an autobiography of his working life; How about opening it by describing the day he was knighted? Or the time he commissioned "Match of the Day", still going strong today? Or the moment he laughed as young Mountain Gorillas played around him, an image that entered the national consciousness when broadcast as part of the ground-breaking "Life On Earth"? No, cleverly he starts with an episode just before he entered the world of the media; we find him clock-watching in a boring job he feels unsuited for. We can appreciate his many successes and triumphs all the more by being shown that they did not magically occur.Sir David is an ordinary mortal, and this short opening passage reminds us of this.

Actually, the vast bulk of this book is purely about his broacasting career, and there are precious few passages such as the clock-watching opening one that do not directly relate to this career.

Personally, I must admit to finding this rather a shame. I enjoyed reading about his childhood fossil museum and his catching the slow train to Nottingham University. Such personal moments are very rare, even his famous film directing brother is only mentioned once, and then only in passing...surely it must have been useful to have such a relative? How did Sir David feel when viewing "Jurassic Park"?

This work is too well mannered to reveal such things, and probably our author is too well bred. In a world of celebrity soul-baring, this attitude is laudable. In a similar way, Sir David underplays his many successes and is slow to blow his own trumpet.

The final chapters, perhaps, fail to sum up as clear and strong message for conservation as perhaps they might, but the author's love of the natural world more than makes up for this. As his closing comments on continuing in TV make clear, " I was in my mid-seventies...I would rather do that than sit at home by myself..." these are the memoirs of an old man, looking back on a full life. The fire in his belly may have gone out a little, but his courtesy , charm and good sense never waver.

Inspirational (1/1 people found this helpful)

David Attenborough is one of my all time heroes, so how could I fail to enjoy it? He has lived the most exciting, extraordinary and amazing life, and done so many things that I could only dream of. It was one of the easiest reads I have had in a long, long time and simply fascinating to read about the changes in attitudes in zoology over the last 50 years, not to forget his time as an early pioneer of TV.
Read it.

Sir Dave. Can i adopt you as my uncle? (1/1 people found this helpful)

Utterly brilliant. Sir Dave could well be the most interesting Briton of the last 100 years. The mans life has been extraordinary. This book is a history of the BBC and a reminder we should be as proud of it as anything else produced by this country. It's a travelogue of exotic far off countries and the endearing diary of a true gent on a boys own adventure. One of the most amazing things about his life is the way he has always adapted to change.
And weaved throughout the book is great piece of natural history, as i read it i could picture scenes from one of his many series.

Please Sir Dave. Adopt me.

A remarkable book about a remarkable man. (7/7 people found this helpful)

This is a fascinating account of David Attenboroughs career with the BBC. It is intrigueing to read of the behind the camara stories to some of his most memorable scenes and documentaries, as well as learning more about the countries he's visited and the life he's lead. This comes highly recommended.

Surprisingly absorbing (5/5 people found this helpful)

I don't normally go in for celebrity (auto)biographies, but I picked this up on holiday as it was the best thing on offer, and found it was surprisingly absorbing! There may've been a more recent edition than the one I read, which terminated just after his wife's death, and so misses some of Attenborough's more recent work, such as the Blue Planet series, but covers all of his television career up to that point.

Despite being an autobiography, Attenborough does his best not just to describe what many people will have seen of his work on television. There are many amusing anecdotes to be found, and the tales of his adventurers around the world really are quite special, since so much his changed in the intervening years (indeed his experience of Komodo Island before and after is one perfect example). There's also quite an insight to be had into the workings of the BBC, and Attenborough's supporting stance is quite plain (one particular encounter he had with the chairman of ITV springs to mind).

All in all, a mixed bag. It suffers all the pitfalls common to autobiographical works, in my opinion, but his travels and experiences have been interesting enough to warrant it worth the read.

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