Review - Peter MARREN (author) & Richard MABEY (editor) – “Bugs Britannica”

Year Published: - 2010
Where the book was from:- My own copy
ISBN: - 978-0701181802
Pages: - 512pp (A4 format)
Genre: - Science and nature; invertebrates
Location:- Britain
How I came across it: - Recommended by Amazon
Rating: - ***** *****
One sentence summary:- An eclectic mix of stories, scientific fact and general observations about the invertebrates of Britain.
 

General comments:-  

Undoubtedly my book of the year.

This wonderful collection does not set out to be a field guide or a comprehensive review of the many species of invertebrate but looks at each group and its relationship to man and his culture. It contains amusing stories; folklore; unusual scientific trivia; wonderful illustrations and is the sort of book you can either dip into or read from cover to cover. In closing their blog which sought contributions, the authors and publishers thanked “our many helpers and contributors who have enlivened the book with fascinating personal encounters with the invertebrate world. Whether or not your stories, anecdotes, poems and pictures appear in the book, we are grateful for them all. Together they indicate that the ongoing relationship of the British and their bugs is based not simply, as in times past, on whether we find them useful or harmful. We have developed a sympathy for other lives and a concern for the shrinking space we can spare for wild land in a crowded island. Your stories also tell of the constant pleasure we take from watching insects, whether it is enjoying the sight of dragonflies hawking over the garden pond, or moths arriving on a brightly lit sheet, or simply hearing the comforting hum of bees on a warm summer afternoon.”

Truly marvelous and a worthy successor to Flora Britannica and Birds Britannica,

AUTHOR Notes:- Peter Marren is the author of The New Naturalists (1995); Nature Conservation (2002); and co-author Art of the New Naturalists (2009).

Richard Mabey (born 20 February 1941) is a naturalist and author. He has been called by The Times 'Britain's greatest living nature writer'. Among his acclaimed publications are Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside and The Common Ground, as well as his study of the nightingale, Whistling in the Dark. His book about Gilbert White won the 1986 Whitbread Biography of the Year. Richard Mabey devised, researched and wrote the ground breaking bestseller Flora Britannica, which won the British Book Awards’ Illustrated Book of the Year and the Botanical Society of the British Isles’ President’s Award and was runner-up for the BP Natural World Book Prize.