“It started with a golden newt in a black bog. I was 10.” So begins this part personal memoir, part natural history guide to the reptiles and amphibians of Britain. Kerridge’s tea-packet card pictures of African and Asian wildlife fascinated him as a child. Britain had no such creatures, but, “if you got close to the ground and saw the forest and savannahs down there”, it had “animals as strange and beautiful and savage” as such wildlife. There are numerous fascinating discussions, such as on anthropomorphism and, especially, on the extent to which nonhuman or nonmammal creatures possess “consciousness”, in which Proust is invoked in evidence. One of the great pleasures of the book is how it weaves together autobiography (especially his troubled relationship with his father), biology and natural history to create an absorbing and informative narrative.
