The Whale in the Living Room

The Whale in the Living Room follows the thrilling adventures of award-winning wildlife documentary producer, John Ruthven, on a journey of discovery – by turns memorable, touching and often funny -that has helped the undersea world flow into countless living rooms to reveal many of our ocean’s mysteries.

John is the only producer to have worked on both Blue Planet and Blue Planet II, presented by David Attenborough, in total making nearly fifty ocean films, including episodes of Discovery Shark Week, expedition films for National Geographic and coral conservation documentaries for PBS. With innovative technology he has helped capture unique images of a sperm whale mother and calf, pictures of glowing creatures half a mile deep, and grey reef sharks hunting by the light of the moon.

We swim with him through blue lagoons, dive into the abyss to encounter new life forms, and experience everything from the danger of getting lost at sea to the sadness of finding a starving whale with a fishing net caught in its mouth. Through each remarkable adventure, John gives insight into what we currently know about the ocean, and our whole blue planet, revealing that the sea really is the ‘saltwater country’ the Yolngu people of Australia know it to be – a place with as many unique destinations in water as on land.

John’s book also explores why we have remained largely blind to the pollution in our oceans until recently and charts how plastic ‘went wild’ in the sea, to understand how we might begin to clear up the mess.