Life on Earth
I am too young to have watched the original TV series of Life on Earth as a child, and instead grew up on the likes of Planet Earth and The Blue Planet. I still think of the David Attenborough programmes of my youth as excellent documentaries, but I was far more impressed with the earlier series when I eventually watched it as an adult.
Many nature documentaries (even those of David Attenborough) are guilty of following a formula that emphasises stunning photography, but is otherwise light on information; some interesting facts and features of animal behaviour will be covered, but they seldom go into too much depth, and feel more like a set of interesting "did you know?" facts than a proper explanation of the underlying science. Life on Earth, however, struck exactly the right balance of imparting useful information, while also using brilliant photography to illustrate what was being covered. More so than any other set of programmes I have watched, it seemed to treat the viewer as having a good level of intelligence, but did not assume too much specialist knowledge. A very refreshing feeling when many documentaries now seem to oversimplify their subject matter.
When I saw that the book that accompanied the series had been updated for it's 40th anniversary (albeit, a few years later) I leapt at the chance to read it. In short, it did not disappoint. A history of life is not something that can be easily summarised in a book of any length, and more will be left out than could possibly be included. Life on Earth, however, felt as though it struck a nice balance of covering a (very) broad overview of the subject, while occasionally presenting one particular aspect of a species' biology or behaviour in greater detail when it illustrated a point. I really enjoyed Attenborough's style of writing and these anecdotes were all deeply interesting.
Inevitably, there were a few areas were I would have preferred the book to be laid out a little differently. Rather more chapters were given over to mammals (and primates in particular) than any other group and I would have preferred it if that space had instead been dedicated to something less familiar; fungi, in particular, didn't seem to have much mention at all. A glossary would also have been useful (absent in the eBook edition I read) as there were a few terms I was unfamiliar with.
Overall, however, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Life on Earth and finished the book wishing there was more - a good recommendation!