"A vertiginous, white-knuckled adventure through some of the most
spectacular forests in the world." ?--Washington Post
Meet the man who climbs trees for a living.? In this adventure memoir,
Aldred carries us with him across the globe and up to the top of these
towering forest titans as he recalls his most memorable encounters with
trees and their inhabitants.?
Every child knows the allure of climbing trees. But how many of us get
to make a living at it, spending days observing nature from the canopies
of stunning forests all around the world?
As a wildlife cameraman for the BBC and National Geographic, James
Aldred spends his working life high up in trees, poised to capture key
moments in the lives of wild animals and birds. Aldred's climbs take him
to the most incredible and majestic trees in existence. In Borneo, home
to the tallest tropical rain forest on the planet, just getting a rope
up into the 250-foot-tall trees is a challenge. In Venezuela, even body
armor isn't guaranteed protection against the razor-sharp talons of a
nesting Harpy Eagle. In Australia, the peace of being lulled to sleep in
a hammock twenty-five stories above the ground-- after a grueling day of
climbing and filming--is broken by a midnight storm that threatens to
topple the tree.
In this vivid account of memorable trees he has climbed ("Goliath,"
"Apollo," "Roaring Meg"), Aldred blends incredible stories of his
adventures in the branches with a fascination for the majesty of trees
to show us the joy of rising--literally--above the daily grind, up into
the canopy of the forest.
