This is a book about the joys of watching the world.

It is autobiographical, but it is not about me; it is about what I have observed. There is no agonised soul-searching, no sneaky kiss-and-tell, no pretentious journey to find the 'real me'. I am not interested in myself. But I am fascinated by the world around me and what I have been able to see and record over a period of six decades of professional observation, first as a student of animal behaviour, and then as a student of human behaviour.

Desmond Morris was born in 1928. Educated at Birmingham and Oxford universities, he became the Curator of Mammals at London Zoo in 1959, a post he held for eight years.

In 1967 he published The Naked Ape which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and has changed the way we view our own species forever.

An accomplished artist, TV presenter, film maker and writer, Desmond Morris's books have been published in over thirty-six countries.