The story of a professional British tree climber, cameraman and adventurer, who has made a career out of travelling the world, filming wildlife for the BBC and climbing trees. James’s climbs take him around the globe, scaling the most incredible and majestic trees in existence: the strangler fig tree of Borneo, the monolithic Congolese moabi tree, the fern-covered howler tree of Costa Rica and the colossal mountain ash of Australia. On the way he meets native tribes and jungle cats, he gets stung by African bees and chased by gorillas, and he spends his nights in a hammock pitched hundreds of feet up in the air, with only the stars above him.
This book blends incredible stories of his adventures in the branches and a fascination with the majesty of trees to show us the joy of rising – literally – above the daily grind, up into the canopy of the forest.
Author
James Aldred grew up on the edge of the New Forest and spent his teenage years exploring it. By fourteen he was building forest shelters and sleeping rough in the woods. By sixteen he was spending much of his time up in the branches. These days, he works in the tree-tops as a freelance wildlife cameraman for the BBC and National Geographic, regularly collaborating with top nature presenters and filmmakers. The Man Who Climbs Trees is his first book.