Barefoot at the Lake

Every year in June, when school finishes, the summer people invade Long Point on Lake Chemong. It's 1954, and Bruce and his dog Angus are desperate to reach the lake - Angus to roll in dead fish, Bruce to count how many different birds he can see.Barefoot at the Lake is Bruce's evocative account of this one particular summer, when his eyes are opened to the complexities of girls, adults and the natural world. He will introduce you to a cast of unforgettable characters and animals. His strong, handsome and taciturn father who works as a florist. His mother in short shorts and a tight shirt, unwittingly charming all the men. His heartbroken uncle, and a seagull called Popeye. And not forgetting Grace, with shiny brown hair and chapped knees. Not only a beautifully written boy's-eye view of the landscape of his youth, Barefoot at the Lake is also delightfully funny, with a moving wisdom at its heart.

A beautiful memoir of summer people and water creatures, which illustrates the formative effects of nature on children by an author who has forged a career caring for animals. For readers of Raynor Winn's THE SALT PATH, John Lewis-Stemple's STILL WATER and Gerald Durrell's MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS.Year after year the family returns to the lake. The children, barefoot and free, explore its sun-drenched wilderness.Bruce Fogle recounts his childhood summers spent at the family cabin by the lake. In an atmospheric new foreword, Bruce's son, wildlife presenter Ben Fogle, shares his experiences spending summers in the very same cabin.The summer Bruce turns ten seems, at first, like any other: swimming out to the raft, watching the gulls, frogs and herons, catching crayfish. But just when he thinks that life is perfect, everything begins to change, and over the course of two months both the harshness of the adult world and the patterns of the natural world reveal themselves.Barefoot at the Lake is not only a beautifully written boy's-eye view of the animals, humans and landscape of his youth, it is also delightfully funny, with a moving wisdom at its heart.