Being a Beast by Charles Foster review – the man who ate worms like a badger

The author of this funny and profound book lived in a sett, swam as an otter and foraged in bins as a city fox – to find out what being a wild animal was really like

• Read an extract

• Interview by Simon Hattenstone

Worms from the Chablis region of France, when chewed, have a long, mineral finish. Worms from Picardy are apparently musty, like splintered wood. Worms from the high Kent Weald are fresh and uncomplicated. And worm flavours change with the season as well as the region: Norfolk worms have a tang of nappy liner in August, but paraffin in January.

When I reached this exploration of the terroir of worms a short way into Charles Foster’s strikingly funny and profound book, I wondered if I was being had. Here, surely, was the ultimate parody of the nature writer’s lament that we are disastrously estranged from the wild world.

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