Festival of Ideas: Charles Foster: Being a Beast

The creature that Frankenstein created was a monster, a beast. Mary Shelley portrayed brilliantly what it was like to be the creator and the hunted. But what is it like to be the beast? Charles Foster, a passionate naturalist, lived life as a badger for six weeks, sleeping in a dirt hole and eating earthworms; came face-to-face with shrimps as he lived like an otter; and spent hours curled up in a back garden in East London and rooting in bins like an urban fox. He also lived like a deer and a swift. He provides an intimate look at the life of animals, bringing together neuroscience, psychology, nature writing, memoir and more wonderful moments of humour and joy, but also providing important lessons for all of us who share life on this precious planet.

Speaker biography:

Charles Foster is a writer, traveller, veterinarian and barrister. He is a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford and teaches Medical Law and Ethics at the University of Oxford. He is a senior research associate at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and a research associate at the Ethox Centre and the HeLEX Centre. He retains an active interest in veterinary medicine - particularly veterinary acupuncture and general wildlife and large animal medicine. He has written books on travel, evolutionary biology, natural history, anthropology, theology, archaeology, philosophy and law. Ultimately they are all attempts to answer the questions 'Who or what are we?', and 'What on earth are we doing here?' His latest book is Being a Beast. Follow him on Twitter @tweedpipe

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