Home > David Pitt-Brooke, author of Chasing Clayoquot

David Pitt-Brooke is the author of Chasing Clayoquot, a book about Clayoquot Sound, BC.

About the book Chasing Clayoquot
“Chasing Clayoquot is a wondrous book, an exquisite meditation, beautifully conceived and eloquently written ... David Pitt-Brooke leaves little doubt that to have sacrificed this paradise, as we very nearly did, would have been an act of folly impossible to explain to our children. Fortunately, the forests still stand, the rivers run clear, and salmon share streams with black bear and cedar. This lovely book, part testimonial, part prayer, tells us why this should always be so.” —Wade Davis

Chasing Clayoquot is an exploration of one of the Earth’s last primeval, untouched places: Clayoquot Sound. This complex, extraordinary spot on the far coast of Vancouver Island includes every imaginable landscape, from open ocean to alpine tundra, not to mention one of the last pieces of old-growth temperate rainforest, home to some of the world’s largest trees.

As Barry Lopez did with the north in Arctic Dreams, award-winning writer David Pitt-Brooke approaches this magical place by taking the reader on 12 journeys, one for each month of the year. Each journey covers one outstanding natural event: winter storms in January, whale-watching in April, the salmon spawn in October.

Chasing Clayoquot is a political book and a book about nature. But much more, it is a beautifully written exploration of an extraordinary environment, a natural cathedral that attracts close to a million visitors a year.

About David Pitt-Brooke
David Pitt-Brooke practised veterinary medicine for a decade and a half, with digressions into wildlife research, including breeding falcons, collaring caribou and implanting radios in rattlesnakes. From 1987 to 1995, he was an environmental education officer for Parks Canada in Glacier, Mount Revelstoke, Waterton Lakes, and finally Pacific Rim National Park.

In 1995 he established his own communications business and has written on a wide range of topics, from grizzly bears to critical path analysis. In June 2002 he received a Canadian Science Writers’ Association Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Science Journalism in Canadian Media during 2001.” Chasing Clayoquot is his first book.