Professor Charles Foster publishes latest book

Professor Charles Foster, Supernumerary Fellow of Exeter College, will publish his latest book in May, Cry of the Wild: Tales of Sea, Woods and Hill. Professor Foster’s ambition is to learn more about humanity, exploring what makes us special and how our identity affects our moral and legal reasoning. To answer these questions, he delves into the lives of wild animals.

Cry of the Wild follows eight wild animals, from a fox to an orca, and tells their stories. Each short story, in Foster’s words, demonstrates the ‘challenges faced by various non-human species’ in living alongside the human race. Foster’s 2016 publication and New York Times Bestseller, Being a Beast, explores similar territory, with the author setting out to find out what it is really like to be a wild animal. While his books span many fields, they all attempt to answer the same questions: ‘Who or what are we?’, and ‘what on earth are we doing here?’.

As an expert in legal anthropology, Foster’s interests range from the moral status of non-human animals all the way to human identity and personhood. Similarly, his multidisciplinary research at Oxford stretches from the Faculty of Law to the Faculty of Philosophy, concentrating his research in medical law and ethics. As a practising barrister, specialising in medical law, Foster uses his publications to further examine how much we know about the world around us.

While  his books Cry of the Wild, Being a Human and Being a Beast would generally be regarded as non-academic, Foster believes they explore themes directly pertinent to his academic research.

Penguin Press will release Cry of the Wild on 4 May. Pre-order a copy here.

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