BEING a BEAST

CHARLES FOSTER is a Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. He holds a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in medical law and ethics, and is a qualified veterinarian with a special interest in acupuncture. Previous publications include books on travel, philosophy, law, the biology of spiritual experience, and the evolution of altruism and community. He is married with six children, and lives in a ramshackle house in Oxford, full of books, dust, animal body parts, masks and penis gourds, and in a tiny cottage on Exmoor.