Charles Foster

Charles Foster's Being a Human is a radically immersive exploration of three pivotal moments in the evolution of human consciousness, asking what kinds of creatures humans were, are, and might yet be...

Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness

Being a Human

To test the limits of our ability to inhabit lives that are not our own, Charles Foster set out to know the ultimate other: the nonhumans. To do that, he chose five animals and lived alongside them, sleeping as they slept, eating what they ate, learning to sense the landscape through the senses they used. In this lyrical, intimate, and completely radical look at the lives of animals, Charles Foster mingles neuroscience and psychology, nature writing and memoir, and ultimately presents an inquiry into the human experience in our world, carried out by exploring the full range of the life around us.

Adventures Across the Species Divide

Being a Beast

Leven als een beest

Charles Potts

Victoria Mundi

Quand un homme tente l'extraordinaire expérience de la vie animale Charles Foster, vétérinaire et professeur à Oxford, a voulu savoir ce que cela faisait d'être un animal sauvage. Dans ce livre, il nous raconte comment il s'y est pris : tour à tour vivant dans un terrier en se nourrissant de vers de terre, chassant dans les eaux glacées des rivières pour soulager une faim insatiable, courant à travers les bois poursuivi par une meute de chiens, accomplissant un itinéraire mystérieux et olfactif dans les rue de Londres, et suivant d'infatigables oiseaux migrateurs. Qu'est-ce qui nous différencie d'un animal ?... Si Charles Foster n'est pas capable de voler ou de ressentir la panique d'un cerf à bout de souffle, il sait néanmoins que lorsque nous échouons à comprendre véritablement l'autre, cela nous apprend toujours quelque chose sur nous-mêmes. Une sérieuse expérimentation racontée avec toute la profondeur requise - ce qui n'empêche pas l'humour. Arnaud Gonzague, L'Obs. Un livre merveilleux. Christilla Pellé-Douël, Psychologies Magazine. Traduit de l'anglais par Thierry Piélat.

Quand un homme tente l'extraordinaire expérience de la vie animale

Dans la peau d'une bête

Screaming Sky

Was fühlt ein Tier, wie lebt es und wie nimmt es seine Umwelt wahr? Um das herauszufinden, tritt Charles Foster ein faszinierendes Experiment an. Er schlüpft in die Rolle von fünf verschiedenen Tierarten: Dachs, Otter, Fuchs, Rothirsch und Mauersegler. Er haust in einem Bau unter der Erde, schnappt mit den Zähnen nach Fischen in einem Fluss und durchstöbert Mülltonnen auf der Suche nach Nahrung. Er schärft seine Sinne, wird zum nachtaktiven Lebewesen, beschreibt wie ein Weinkenner die unterschiedlichen »Terroirs« von Würmern und wie sich der Duft der Erde in den verschiedenen Jahreszeiten verändert. In die scharfsinnige und witzige Schilderung seiner skurrilen Erfahrungen lässt er wissenswerte Fakten einfließen und stellt sie in den Kontext philosophischer Themen. Letztendlich geht es dabei auch um die eine Frage: Was es bedeutet, Mensch zu sein.

Wie ich versuchte, als Tier zu leben

Der Geschmack von Laub und Erde

Mira Kirshenbaum

Tells parents how to improve communication with their teenagers, discusses the importance of respect and trust, and includes suggestions on solving specific problem behaviors

The Relationship Approach

Parent/teen Break-through

Medicine evolves fast, and medical law tries to keep up. It deals with some of the most fascinating, fundamental and difficult questions about the human body and mind. Charles Foster surveys the principles governing medical law.

Medical Law: A Very Short Introduction

'Literal "eccentricity" is where the scientific, artistic and spiritual giants have always found their home. Venture with Foster if you dare, and embrace life.' Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it's a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive. This book travels to the frontiers of human culture and consciousness; to the edges of continents, of evolution, of artistic and political movements, and life itself: from a rocky precipice in the Peloponnese where the first human set foot in Europe to an ancient Egyptian temple where monotheism was invented; from St Francis, kissing lepers to the giant bird-eating mice of St Kilda. Why do we stare at sunsets? Why do we celebrate birthdays and grieve for those who are gone? Why do all adventures begin when we leave and get lost? Who has the better view of reality – the Government or the dispossessed? And what happens when we live with the knowledge that we’re all teetering on the edge of the dark?

At the margins of life, lands and history

The Edges of the World

An insider's view into the early days of Hollywood and the motion picture industry. This is the story of one man's meteoric rise from obscurity in an isolated Canadian province to becoming one of the most famous Broadway starsin the world.

The King of Broadway

Donald Brian

Mel Atkey

James Neufeld

Martin Hunter

Sheila M.F. Johnston

Ward McBurney

This special bundle contains seven books that detail Canada’s long and storied history in the performing arts. We learn about Canada’s early Hollywood celebrity movie stars; Canadians’ vast contributions to successful international stage musicals; the story of The Grand, a famous theatre in London, Ontario; reminiscences from the early days of radio; the history of the renowned Stratford Festival; and a lavish history of the famous National Ballet of Canada. Canada’s performing artists blossomed in the twentieth century, and you can learn all about it here. Includes Broadway North Let’s Go to The Grand! Once Upon a Time in Paradise Passion to Dance Sky Train Romancing the Bard Stardust and Shadows

Broadway North / Let's Go to The Grand! / Once Upon a Time in Paradise / Passion to Dance / Sky Train / Romancing the Bard / Stardust and Shadows

Dundurn Performing Arts Library Bundle — Theatre

The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation Told in Simple Language for the Young

Told in Simple Language Adapted to All Ages, But Especially to the Young. 33d Thousand

The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation

Revisit Hollywood’s Golden Age with insider Charles Foster, who befriended the many Canadian stars that peppered the film sets. Foster reveals the stories of the amazing influence Canadians had in the early days of the film biz. Includes: Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood A Hollywood insider brings together the stories of eighteen Canadians who were celebrities during Hollywood’s formative years. Once Upon a Time in Paradise: Canadians in the Golden Age of Hollywood During Hollywood’s Golden Age, a bevy of talented Canadians earned important roles in the motion picture industry.

Once Upon a Time in Paradise / Stardust and Shadows

Canadians in Golden Age Hollywood 2-Book Bundle

Imagine receiving a mysterious invitation from Charlie Chaplin, doing jigsaw puzzles with Marilyn Monroe, having a heart-to-heart with Jack Kennedy, or being kissed by Greta Garbo. All of these and more are the sensational memories of UK-born, honorary Maritimer Charles Foster. After an unlikely childhood, his adventurous spirit brought him in 1943 to RAF pilot training school in Calgary. Through a series of incredible circumstances and fortunate friendships, Foster went on to become a Hollywood writer and publicist.Now writing from New Brunswick as a regular columnist for Senior's Advocate, Foster shares his most tantalizing stories as a collection for the first time. With tales from the golden age of film, radio, theatre, and music, including international adventures from Moscow to Berlin and beyond, From Old Hollywood to New Brunswick shows just how far an RAF uniform, a little bit of luck, and whole lot of charm could take you in mid-twentieth century show business.Includes a 20-page insert of original photographs.

Memories of a Wonderful Life

From Old Hollywood to New Brunswick

Autonomy is a vital principle in medical law and ethics. It occupies a prominent place in all medico-legal and ethical debate. But there is a dangerous presumption that it should have the only vote, or at least the casting vote. This book is an assault on that presumption, and an audit of autonomy's extraordinary status. This book surveys the main issues in medical law, noting in relation to each issue the power wielded by autonomy, asking whether that power can be justified, and suggesting how other principles can and should contribute to the law. It concludes that autonomy's status cannot be intellectually or ethically justified, and that positive discrimination in favour of the other balancing principles is urgently needed in order to avoid some sinister results. 'This book is a sustained attack on the hegemony of the idea of autonomy in medical ethics and law. Charles Foster is no respecter of authority, whether of university professors or of law Lords. He grabs his readers by their lapels and shakes sense into them through a combination of no-nonsense rhetoric and subtle argument that is difficult to resist.' Tony Hope, Professor of Medical Ethics, Oxford University 'This book is unlikely to be in pristine state by the time you have finished reading it. Whether that is because you have thrown it in the air in celebration or thrown it across the room in frustration will depend on your perspective. But this book cannot leave you cold. It is a powerful polemic on the dominance of autonomy in medical law, which demands a reaction. Charles Foster sets out a powerful case that academic medical lawyers have elevated autonomy to a status it does not deserve in either ethical or legal terms. In a highly engaging, accessible account, he challenges many of the views which have become orthodox within the academic community. This will be a book which demands and will attract considerable debate.' Jonathan Herring, Exeter College, Oxford University 'This is a learned, lively and thought-provoking discussion of problems central to the courts' approach to ethical issues in medical law. What principles are involved? More significantly, which really underlie and inform the process of seeking justice in difficult cases? Charles Foster persuasively argues, and demonstrates, that respect for autonomy is but one of a number of ethical principles which interact and may conflict. He also addresses the sensitive issue of the extent to which thoughts and factors which go to influence legal decisions may not appear in the judgments.' Adrian Whitfield QC. 'Introducing the Jake La Motta of medical ethics. Foster is an academic street-fighter who has bloodied his hands in the court room. He provides a stinging, relentless, ground attack on the Goliath of medical ethics: the central place of autonomy in liberal medical ethics. This is now the first port of call for those who feel that medical ethics has become autonomized.' Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford. "This important book offers a robust challenge to anyone, whether lawyer or 'ethicist', who sees respect for autonomy as the only game in town. It argues eloquently and effectively that, on the one hand, despite the reverence paid to it by judges, in practice the law, even in the context of consent, weaves together a number of moral threads of which autonomy is merely one, in the pursuit of a good decision. It argues on the other hand, that were the day-to-day practice of law to be guided primarily by respect for autonomy, this would be wrong. Foster concludes that whilst, 'any society that does not have laws robustly protecting autonomy is an unsafe and unhappy one', so too would be a society in which too much emphasis was placed on respect for autonomy at the expense of other important moral principles. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the role of autonomy and indeed of medical ethics, in the law." Michael Parker, Professor of Bioethics, University of Oxford

The Tyranny of Autonomy in Medical Ethics and Law

Choosing Life, Choosing Death

Jonathan Herring

This book is an examination of how the law understands human identity and the whole notion of ‘human being’. On these two notions the law, usually unconsciously, builds the superstructure of ‘human rights’. It explores how the law understands the concept of a human being, and hence a person who is entitled to human rights. This involves a discussion of the legal treatment of those of so-called "marginal personhood" (e.g. high functioning non-human animals; humans of limited intellectual capacity, and fetuses). It also considers how we understand our identity as people, and hence how we fall into different legal categories: such as gender, religion and so on.The law makes a number of huge assumptions about some fundamental issues of human identity and authenticity – for instance that we can talk meaningfully about the entity that we call ‘our self’. Until now it has rarely, if ever, identified those assumptions, let alone interrogated them. This failure has led to the law being philosophically dubious and sometimes demonstrably unfit for purpose. Its failure is increasingly hard to cover up. What should happen legally, for instance, when a disease such as dementia eliminates or radically transforms all the characteristics that most people regard as foundational to the ‘self’? This book seeks to plug these gaps in the literature.

Identity, Personhood and the Law

'Evocative and beautifully written, it's a deeply immersive read' Observer 'Charles Foster is the most original voice in nature writing today - funny, urgent, poetic, philosophical and deeply moving' Patrick Barkham 'Utterly exhilarating... This book demands we change our ways' Lee Schofield 'There aren't many writers like Charles around... a deeply thought-provoking book' James Aldred 'Reading this book feels like being made suddenly omniscient. In other words, you really have to' Tom Moorhouse 'Astonishingly playful, humorous, immensely varied and outrageously intelligent... The most inventive British writer presently at work on the theme of nature' Mark Cocker What is it like to live in a world built by humans? These eight genre-blending stories reveal the complexity, beauty and fragility of wild lives - a brilliantly modern twist on classics like Watership Down and Tarka the Otter. A fox, grown strong on pepperoni pizza from the dustbins of the East End, dances along a railway track towards Essex, the territory of wild foxes and wilder huntsmen. An orca, mourning the loss of her mother in a valley west of Skye, knows that she must now lead the pod as matriarch. She swims again through her childhood, thinking about the old ways, the old roads, laid down thousands of years ago. But the old roads aren't so easy now. At moonrise in a West Country river, an otter floats slowly downstream. The tide, though it pushes him landwards when it exhales, seems to pull him out when it inhales. He turns on his back. He can see the stars clearly for the first time and wonders if he can swim to them. The wild has never stopped waiting. It has only ever been in exile, right under our noses, waiting to confound, outrage and re-enchant.

Charles Foster

Books

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