Barefoot at the Lake

When I’m asked how I became a vet I used to answer, “It just happened.” To better understand how I came to spend the last 45 years caring for animals I’ve written about the summer of 1954, at our family cottage on Lake Chemong in Ontario, Canada. Early comments on Barefoot at the Lake have been very favourable. It’s published in the United States and Canada by Greystone Books, in the UK and Commonwealth by September Publishing and in audio format by Amazon’s Audible Books.

“A beautiful and engaging book with vivid and memorable characters. Uncle Reub is a riveting character and would be a masterpiece in fiction.”
“In his tender and extraordinarily moving memoir, Barefoot at the Lake, Bruce Fogle gracefully recounts how his young self became the wise and sensitive veterinarian we know today.”
Ted Kerasote – author of the American best seller Merle’s Door
Winner National Outdoor Book Award

“A book full of quiet wisdom, an inspiring account of how an adult vocation can grow from the formative experiences of childhood.”
“Bruce Fogle shows himself to be a craftsman of a writer.”
Caroline Sanderson – The Bookseller

“‘In wildness’, said Thoreau, ‘is the salvation of the world.’ Bruce Fogle’s enchantingly written memoir shows a growing child developing intense empathy with nature alongside his interaction with human beings. Gently and lovingly, his writing highlights something we are in danger of losing for ever: that we can understand ourselves most profoundly only in relation to the wilderness.”
Ruth Padel – Poetry Fellow, King’s College, London
Jurist – Costa Book Award, National Poetry Competition, Wellcome Trust Science Book Prize

“Bruce Fogle’s sweet, beautifully written memoir, Barefoot at the Lake, precisely catches the fleeting magic of both adolescence and Canadian summer. Reading it is like peering into a snapshot, taken long ago at a beloved cottage.”
David Macfarlane – Broadcaster, journalist, author of Summer Gone
Winner Books in Canada First Novel Award

“A long, hot summer’s day of a book – dreamy, relaxing, full of wonderful stories, poignant memories and acute observations of the natural world.”
Kate Humble – Nature History Broadcaster, Journalist