Jolly Green Giant

The long awaited autobiography of Britain's favourite botanist.

Professor David Bellamy, botanist, writer and broadcaster has become one of the best-known and respected personalities in Britain. His numerous television and radio broadcasts communicate to thousands of people his enthusiasm and concern for the natural world. David Bellamy's travels take him across the world heralding the message that a new, enlightened view of conservation is needed. He is the author of 80 scientific papers and 34 books, many of which are bestselling children's titles. He has written and presented numerous television programmes both for the BBC and for independents. His programmes have won many national awards, including the Richard Dimbleby Award at BAFTA. He is president, patron or trustee of numerous conservation and environmental organisations and founded the Conservation Foundation in 1982. His interests are ballet and children.

David Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir will be packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. It is the story of how a city boy, brought up in the middle of London, went for a trip into the countryside one day, an event which was to transform his life by setting in motion the amazing love of nature which would make famous this larger-than-life character. In his infectious style he illumines on, amongst other things, the fact that his father, the manager of a branch of Boots, had to grease his hair straight - because in those days managers of Boots weren't allowed to have curly hair! Then there was the time he and his brother discovered an exploded bomb, kept in the garden shed - and then accidentally blew off the front of the house with it. He reveals his secret passion is  ballet dancing - and how his mother only found out about it when she saw him on stage at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon.  His career as an academic, then author, broadcaster, consultant and television personality, spans 35 years and his main passion - campaigning for the environment - have led to many adventures including his being twice imprisoned in the Third World.

A Natural Life

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Professor David Bellamy, botanist, writer and broadcaster has become one of the best-known and respected personalities in Britain. He is the author of 80 scientific papers and 34 books, many of which are bestselling children's titles. He has written and presented numerous television programmes both for the BBC and for independents. His programmes have won many national awards, including the Richard Dimbleby Award at BAFTA. He is president, patron or trustee of numerous conservation and environmental organisations and founded the Conservation Foundation in 1982.

David Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir is packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. He depicts wonderfully a childhood of discovery and adventure growing up in Carshalton during the second world war.  Despite rationing and evacuation, these were happy days of tremendous freedom spent roaming the wonderland of the surrounding countryside searching for bugs, beetles and bits of old shrapnel which young Bellamy and his brother would smuggle home to  their father's shed for their firework-making sessions. His growing love of nature is interwoven with loving, often hilarious, portraits of the various characters he meets along the way.   From his days as a student in fifties London to his trial by fire lectureship at Durham University with a young wife and ever-growing family to support, Bellamy reveals his many great loves from sports cars to ballet.  He also writes of his more serious concerns, with his reputation for being outspoken and undeterred in the face of big enterprises and corporations revealed in his battles and campaigns.

David Bellamy

At a time when health scares abound, new drugs  and medical treatments are continually emerging and we are forced to be ever-more cautious as to the  foods we eat, people are increasingly looking for alternative ways of treating and restoring their health.  The healing properties of plants has long been recognised, but knowing exactly what we should be giving our families and how this 'alternative' medicine can work safely  alongside modern treatments can seem rather less straightforward. David Bellamy - Britain's favourite botanist - here draws on his many years of research and teaching to give us a practical, accessible and comprehensive guide to herbalism, showing how we can all use herbs to strengthen our immune system,  boost energy levels and  treat conditions ranging from the common cold to digestive disorders, arthritis and heart disease.  Bellamy's Herbal is an easy to follow, detailed guide to everything you need to know about herbal remedies and supplements and how they can be used to treat you and your family safely and effectively.

David Bellamy

Books by David Bellamy

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