Desmond may have given me an insight into human behaviour, but he's given me lots of laughs, too. We think the same things are funny, and he's a brilliant raconteur.

Sir David Attenborough

This is a book about the joys of watching the world.

It is autobiographical, but it is not about me; it is about what I have observed. There is no agonised soul-searching, no sneaky kiss-and-tell, no pretentious journey to find the 'real me'. I am not interested in myself. But I am fascinated by the world around me and what I have been able to see and record over a period of six decades of professional observation, first as a student of animal behaviour, and then as a student of human behaviour.