Book Review: The First Eden by David Attenborough

This book is my souvenir from our recent trip to Brownsea Island. Along with a new NT shop, there is also a room of second hand books being sold for charity, and this is where I found this book.

This book (a companion to a television series of the same name) takes us on a journey around the Mediterranean, from the Gibraltar Straits at the western end all the way through to the eastern edge including Egypt and Turkey. From pre-history to modern times and encompassing a great deal of human and natural events.


Broken down into four chapters broadly covering natural history, archaeology, history, and ecology, this book provides information on a massive range of topics. In true David Attenborough style, the book revolves around various stories that highlight the point being made. Whether it's in the first chapter, The Making of the Garden, where we're told of the pigmy elephants and giant dormouse; or in the final chapter, Strangers in the Garden, where we follow the story of the aphid that destroyed a great many wine vineyards in the late 1880s.

The first chapter really entices the reader with the wonderful creation of the Mediterranean and giving us a glimpse of the animals and plants that have made their way to the islands and having found their niche, evolved and in some cases, sadly, become extinct there. From pigmy animals of hippo and elephant that lived on islands such as Malta, to the 50-odd species of beautiful orchids that live around the Mediterranean; life on, in, and around, the Mediterranean has been a busy one. Spectacles, such as the millions of jersey tiger moths that hang to the moss-clad rock in the Petaloudes Valley are surely a wonder of nature.

The second chapter allows us to investigate the archaeology and pre-history of the Mediterranean, including the wonderful artwork that adores the walls of caves. These are all of various animals, but non more important to these people than the bull - which allowed them to develop a rather fascinating religion. However, it was plants, such as the olive, that really allowed the people to live and prosper.

The third chapter delves into the history of the Mediterranean has been turbulent, showing us that war in the region is not just a recent occurrence. Territory passed from empire to empire, from Roman to Visigoth, to Huns, etc. All stripping the Mediterranean of  its resources in the never ending quest of solidifying and then extending the amounts of land (and people) under the control of the empire. The Moors, however, brought paradise to Spain, in the form of a garden - in Arabic the same word is used for both paradise and garden. Their management of water allowed stunning gardens to be made in places of little rainfall. When I think of the Mediterranean landscape, I see blank spaces of land with bits of scrub, but this book shows that the Mediterranean used to be a forested landscape that was cut down and destroyed in the name of warfare. In one particular battle, the battle of Lepanto, is has been calculated that for all the fleets fighting that day, over a quarter of a million mature trees will have been felled. What a waste of life - and that doesn't even include the human cost of such pointless battles or the loss of habitat for the other animals, plants, fungi, etc.

In the final chapter, Strangers in the Garden, we see how much humans have changed the Mediterranean. From the building of canals through countries, such as the Necho's canal and the modern day Suez canal, to shorten voyages - allowing the movement of aquatic species into new habitats that they would never naturally reach. Also the mass movement of plants into and out of the Mediterranean, which seems to have started in the 7th century and never stopped. However, Attenborough is an optimist and see that while the Mediterranean may, arguably, be the oldest humanised landscape, very few species have actually gone extinct. He posits that the Mediterranean should be the place that allows us to learn from our mistakes, and as the countries of the Mediterranean have come together to protect the wildlife in their waters - the countries of the world should take this example and come together to protect the Earth. amazing thinking for a book that was published in 1987 - just another example of the wonder that is David Attenborough.