... [a] thrilling, brilliant, bonkers account ... Being a Beast is a strange kind of masterpiece: the song of a satyr, perhaps, or nature writing as extreme sport. Foster marks out the distance between us and the beasts in a way that helps sharpen their boundaries and ours — and ours are not always where we think.
...[a] strikingly funny and profound book ... his approach also produces insight into the lifestyles – and emotions – of animals. Even trivial experiences are revealing ... His failure in trying to be a badger is magnificent, but his attempt to become an otter is hampered by his contempt for the species; and his passages about the red deer are more about his own stalking follies and an act of repentance ... Illuminating and unfailingly entertaining, this book is a tour de force of modern nature writing, and shows us how to better love the world beyond ourselves.
...a meditative romp that leaves you laughing out loud (and occasionally cursing in anger) even as you soak up the spray of science ... Steeped in scholarship, yet directed by his own quirky mysticism, Foster brilliantly takes on questions of animal consciousness, cognition, emotion and theory of mind.
