Trials of Life: A Natural History of Animal Behaviour

The third and final updated edition of David Attenborough’s classic Life trilogy. Life on Earth covered evolution, Living Planet , ecology, and now The Trials of Life tackles ethology, the study of how animals behave.

‘This is, quite simply, the best thing I’ve ever done.’ Sir David Attenborough on the TV series, The Trials of Life, upon which this book is based.

This is the third and last of Sir David’s great natural history books based on his TV series and competes his survey of the animal world that began with Life on Earth and continues with Living Planet.

In Life on Earth, Sir David showed how each group of animals evolved. In Living Planet he looked at the way they have adapted to the whole range of habitats in which they live. Now, in Trials of Life, he completes the story by revealing how animals behave – and why.


Praise for the New Edition of Life on Earth:

‘It does not disappoint. The new Life on Earth is as glorious as the first’ Guardian

‘A beautiful and wide ranging work. The breadth of natural history covered is extraordinary and mesmerising. Life on Earth is still breathtakingly rich, and we would know far less about it were it not for Attenborough’s wonderful skills of communication over the years: our cultural and scientific lives would be poorer without him’ New Scientist

‘This natural history masterpiece offers a spectacular snapshot of a once-wild planet’ New Scientist


Praise for David Attenborough:

‘A marvellous book … unputdownable … utterly engaging’ Telegraph

‘An elegant and gently funny writer’ The Times

‘His writing is as impressive and as enjoyable as his TV programmes and there can be no higher praise’ Daily Express

‘A great educator as well as a great naturalist’ Barack Obama

‘Sir David is a wizard of television, and, like Gandalf or Dumbledore, he has a near-magical gift for combining warmth and gravitas . . . the man who, for me, exemplifies the best in British broadcasting’ Louis Theroux

‘When I was a young boy I used to love turning on the television and watching David's programmes and really feeling like I was either back out in Africa or I was learning about something magical and almost out of this planet’ HRH Prince William