Mike Tomkies is quite a guy. His writing career followed army service with the Coldstream Guards in Palestine, successful athletic achievement, and a round-the-world sailing attempt. International journalism included interviews with a host of celebrities. So what more could you ask? Evidently Tomkies needed more for, aged 38, he threw it all up for a life in the wild, and it is this for which he is best known. He lived in Canada, then in the west of Scotland and in the Borders, before returning at last to his boyhood home in Sussex. 'Wildcat Haven' is just one of twenty books he has written about his wilderness experiences. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.

Scottish wildcats are currently wildlife celebrities, having quietly declined over the centuries, due in recent years to cross breeding with domestic cats. Now there may be as few as 400 left in the wild and the conservation community has awoken to the threat with a jolt of publicity. In 2008 Scottish Natural Heritage began the first survey of wildcats for twenty years, the Scottish Wildcat Association was established, Simon King sought the cats during the BBC Springwatch program, and Whittle Books have re-issued the first book which described one man's life with wildcats - Wildcat Haven.

Tomkies spent five years living with wildcats. His story is illuminating, for those of us who know and have seen nothing of them. Lovers of domestic cats will find some similarities and many differences. The book raises many questions about wildcats, and answers many more, often with results contrary to accepted knowledge. This is partly due to the difficulty of raising wildcats in captivity - they are known as untameable, and Tomkies describes them as 'our wildest, most ferocious and yet most beautiful and fascinating mammal.' Certainly all these characters emerge in this story of a man and his cats.

Given two abandoned female kittens, Tomkies is initially uncertain about taking on the task of raising them, but becomes 'inspired by their wildness. Day by day as they grow he gets to know their individual characters and to appreciate their innate strength and the way they interact with the untamed country around the remote cottage he names Wildernesse. The increasing wildness of the cats leads him to consider sending them away, but, paradoxically, he ends up taking another older male cat from London Zoo and deciding to attempt to breed them, something not recorded before.

The progress of the new kittens to maturity, their behaviour, their relations with each other and their father, their discovery of the outside world and the author's eventual taming of a wildcat kitten form a fascinating story which, still, very few people have been privileged to witness. Tomkies recounts the many incidents which enliven an already challenging lifestyle. We hear of the torrential summer gales, the 'irritating hordes of midges,' the essential but dangerous boat journeys to pick up supplies, and the occasional trip to London - with a wildcat for company! Tomkies is revealed as a complex character, a lover of the wild, a romantic with a taste for solitude but a fundamental need to aid this species in decline.

'Although 'not a scientist, just a student of nature', he obviously kept detailed notes of 'his' cats' development and behaviour. In recent years science has taken much more interest in this, our only remaining native cat, and a select band of enthusiasts breeds them in captivity, but still Tomkies books must be the first port of call for anyone interested in Scottish wildcats.

This book is attractively illustrated by Tomkies' own photographs of the cats and the kittens as they grew up. A Postscript adds details of subsequent events and breeding at Edinburgh Zoo. A lengthy Appendix gives an updated resumé of wildcats and their conservation and covers some contentious issues, and an up-to-date Bibliography completes this satisfying book. A sketch map of the environs of Wildernesse would have been appreciated, particularly since its location us now a matter of public knowledge, but the book will be deeply appreciated by anyone with any interest in our native wildlife and its conservation.

'In five years I raised two kittens, gave magnificent old Sylvesturr a choice of two mates, by one of which he had six kittens, and his eventual freedom. I tamed one wildcat and released eight of these rare creatures back into the wild. It still seems a worthwhile thing to have done.' Tomkies is right to be proud of his achievement. His book gives us all a chance to share in it and it is to be hoped that anyone enjoying it will take the opportunity to help the few remaining wildcats by supporting the Scottish Wildcat Association.