Being a Beast

In this "tour de force of modern nature writing," a passionate naturalist explores what it's really like to be an animal—by living like them (The Guardian, UK).

In Being a Beast, Charles Foster tests the limits of our ability to walk in another's footsteps. He lives alongside badgers for weeks, sleeping in a sett in a Welsh hillside and eating earthworms, learning to sense the landscape through his nose rather than his eyes. He catches fish in his teeth while swimming like an otter; roots through London garbage cans as an urban fox; is hunted by bloodhounds as a red deer, nearly dying in the snow. And he follows the swifts on their migration route over the Strait of Gibraltar, discovering himself to be strangely connected to the birds.


A lyrical, intimate, and completely radical look at the life of animals—human and other—Being a Beast mingles neuroscience and psychology, nature writing and memoir to cross the boundaries separating the species. It is an extraordinary journey full of thrills and surprises, humor and joy. And, ultimately, it is an inquiry into the human experience in our world, carried out by exploring the full range of the life around us.