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A review by minkley
David Attenborough: Life on Air: Revised and Updated Edition by David Attenborough
4.0
This is a big old book, or at least it felt it to me.
The book is a series of tales spent fighting through jungle or conquering some unknown frontier, for a television crew at least. It tracks a huge swathe of his career, from a tedious office job, which as an aspiring film maker with a tedious office job struck a chord, through documentaries, broadcasts, several iterations of the BBC and breaking free to his freelance career. I wasn’t counting, but i reckon there were almost an even split between the humans Attenborough worked with and the plants and animals that fascinated him. That fascination with animals and stories are really does shine through in the reserved and polite manner of the quickly retiring british gent who seems soon to fade away.
It reminds me of Indiana Jones as he pops into the office for a moment between his various archeological adventures. Attenborough politely hops over the admin and office politics of running BBC 2. In stead he devotes as many pages to the feild work that he has become renown for, telling the story behind the footage that has now become iconic. There is much more dangling from trees, trekking through forests and talking to the locals than scratching his head back in the office. In some ways it disappoints me that i didn’t hear more about the sprawling jungle of beuracracy that is the BBC. That said, much like idiana jones, there are several historical characters who make a camera including guiding prime ministers taking their tentative first steps in television and the ever gentle task of directing Queen Elizabeth II for the camera.
Coming from a time where international travel was reserved for the upper crust and their administrators and soldiers, it seems every other tale is a first. As a student of film it is a veritable history of broadcast television and practical film making. The impact of sound and camera equipment can be a dry topic at the best of times. Hearing about the sound recordist needing to crack open the tape recorder and fan the overheating transistors grounds those technological leaps in a practical, human way. Film makers will be reassured to find that the icon of natural history documentaries is more than happy to talk about fluffing peices-to-camera, losing footage and fighting with the equipment as much as the indigenous creatures they came to film.
It was a long book to finish, but in the end i couldn’t help but be inspired. Attenborough seems to be content and happy with his life, and having read his book you can see why. He has spent as much time adventuring as witnessing, if not shaping, history as it happened. In the end though, it didn’t quite cover his entire life and even finishes on the optimistic note that comes with what we know is a colourful retirement. You can tell he works in showbiz. All ways leave them wanting more.
The book is a series of tales spent fighting through jungle or conquering some unknown frontier, for a television crew at least. It tracks a huge swathe of his career, from a tedious office job, which as an aspiring film maker with a tedious office job struck a chord, through documentaries, broadcasts, several iterations of the BBC and breaking free to his freelance career. I wasn’t counting, but i reckon there were almost an even split between the humans Attenborough worked with and the plants and animals that fascinated him. That fascination with animals and stories are really does shine through in the reserved and polite manner of the quickly retiring british gent who seems soon to fade away.
It reminds me of Indiana Jones as he pops into the office for a moment between his various archeological adventures. Attenborough politely hops over the admin and office politics of running BBC 2. In stead he devotes as many pages to the feild work that he has become renown for, telling the story behind the footage that has now become iconic. There is much more dangling from trees, trekking through forests and talking to the locals than scratching his head back in the office. In some ways it disappoints me that i didn’t hear more about the sprawling jungle of beuracracy that is the BBC. That said, much like idiana jones, there are several historical characters who make a camera including guiding prime ministers taking their tentative first steps in television and the ever gentle task of directing Queen Elizabeth II for the camera.
Coming from a time where international travel was reserved for the upper crust and their administrators and soldiers, it seems every other tale is a first. As a student of film it is a veritable history of broadcast television and practical film making. The impact of sound and camera equipment can be a dry topic at the best of times. Hearing about the sound recordist needing to crack open the tape recorder and fan the overheating transistors grounds those technological leaps in a practical, human way. Film makers will be reassured to find that the icon of natural history documentaries is more than happy to talk about fluffing peices-to-camera, losing footage and fighting with the equipment as much as the indigenous creatures they came to film.
It was a long book to finish, but in the end i couldn’t help but be inspired. Attenborough seems to be content and happy with his life, and having read his book you can see why. He has spent as much time adventuring as witnessing, if not shaping, history as it happened. In the end though, it didn’t quite cover his entire life and even finishes on the optimistic note that comes with what we know is a colourful retirement. You can tell he works in showbiz. All ways leave them wanting more.