A PRIMATE'S MEMOIR (Love, Death and Baboons) by Robert Sapolsky, chosen by Professor Ben Garrod

Evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod (Professor at the University of East Anglia) chooses a book which he's read and gifted countless times, a book which inspired him to go out in the field and study chimpanzees himself: A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky. Robert is one of the leading primatologists and scientists today and this is his gripping, at times heartbreaking account of leaving the United States age twenty-one to study wild baboons in the Kenyan savannah.

Lucy Jones (author of Matrescence and Losing Eden) picks an author she has consistently loved for her child-like gift of wonder and close, detailed attention to the natural world. Lucy brings Annie Dillard's collection of essays, The Abundance, for the others to read.

And Harriett Gilbert recommends a fictional tale of early motherhood. A vivid, immersive monologue of a woman on the brink that keeps readers on the edge of their seats to the very end.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol