With Christmas on the horizon, this is the time to be dropping hints about possible books for presents. These three are very different in content and cost, none being an identification guide.
by Michael Salmon.
Published by Harley Books, 2000. £30. 432pp, Hardbound.
ISBN 0 946589
40 2
The most expensive, at £30.00, is ‘The Aurelian Legacy’ by Michael Salmon, with additional material by Peter Marren and Basil Harley. This is a large, heavy hardback and is a bible for anyone interested in lepidoptera history. Although I have never been a butterfly collector I still found the sections interesting. There is coverage of British butterfly collecting, a section aptly entitled ‘Weapons of the Chase’, a later section on conservation and a big chunk about species of historical interest (this incidentally had its own bibliography of main published texts per species which I found very useful). With a book of this length there are bound to be some errors: no mention of the successful Large Blue reintroductions, a very incomplete list of the 1990’s Large Tortoiseshell sightings, and, the comment about the Glanville Fritillary that “one day this beautiful butterfly may well colonise the mainland again” is unfortunate given that it colonised Hordle Cliff some time ago. The main section is a long, detailed and comprehensive collection of biographies of the main British butterfly collectors, the first full published list. I found this surprisingly interesting, not just their details and obvious passion, but also their interaction with each other, which was not always positive. The only omission I could detect was Sam Beaufoy, pioneer of life-cycle photography and illustrator of Ford’s ‘Butterflies’, though his death may have been too late for inclusion.
With plentiful illustrations, magnificent full-page colour reproductions from a variety of famous artists, quotes from Vladimir Nabokov and Virginia Woolf, plus a forward by Miriam Rothschild, this is certainly not a dry academic treatise and I would recommend it to anyone with even the most peripheral interest in the history of British lepidoptera.
by Roger Camp.
Published by Thames and Hudson, 2002. £18.95.
ISBN 0500 10903
The second book is a complete contrast. I can vividly remember finding this in a Chelmsford bookshop and, with no one nearby, being able to extend much of its full unfolded length of twelve metres. Against a black background, over three hundred images of mainly foreign butterflies in flight can be unfolded page by page. There is a separate identification and habitat guide. This in my opinion is the best artistic book about butterflies since ‘Beningfield’s Butterflies’ and is a superb testimony to their grace, elegance and colour.
by Sue Halpern.
Published by Weidenfield and Nicolson, 2001. £12.99. Hardback.
ISBN 0 297 84221 8
Finally, a hardback joins the ever-growing published literature about those incredible ‘Guinness Book of Records’ butterflies, the Monarchs. This is ‘Four Wings and a Prayer’. I have been able to visit the Mexican over-wintering Monarch site on two occasions so this book gave me a comprehensive update on the latest research into migration routes. I wasn’t too impressed with some of the liberties taken by the researchers, such as putting the butterflies in envelopes and transferring captured specimens from one migration route to a different one, to see what happened to their orientation, but the author did cover a wide variety of monarch enthusiasts. These ranged from university professors to glider pilots and ordinary members of the public who had become hooked. There was also comment on how the creation of sanctuary areas at the wintering sites had affected local folk who had used them for centuries. This last-mentioned aspect did, I felt, need more detail, especially about local job creation to accommodate the many visitors. I also suffered at times from a distinct ignorance of North American geography and still grit my teeth when an exquisite creature like a Monarch is described as a ‘bug’. I did enjoy the author’s listing of her personal inspirations which ranged from books to websites, newsletters, poetry, and branched into other forms of wildlife. I found this far more useful than the standard list of references.
Throughout the passion and dedication of these Monarch ‘maniacs’ was strongly portrayed. Ideally this should be read alongside Joe Brewer’s ‘Wings in the Meadow’
(Dent, 1967; Country Book Club 1971), which is beautifully illustrated but probably now out of print. This is also a detailed account of Monarchs but is fascinating to read first since it was written before the actual over-wintering place of the Monarchs was discovered.
Richard Stewart
by Michael Viney.
Published by the Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 2003. £20. 336pp. 47 colour photographs. Hardbound.
ISBN 0 85640 744 5
I bought this book after reading a review by Peter Marren in the February 2004 edition of British Wildlife. I must avoid the trap of plagiarising Peter. Sadly I have lesser writing skills and I cannot hope to match his eloquence.
The sleeve notes say that the author, having lived in Ireland since 1961, moved to Thallabawn, County Mayo, in 1977 in search of a self-reliant country life. At that time he began a weekly column, ‘Another Life’, for The Irish Times and has since directed wildlife films and written a highly commended account of life at Thallabawn. The book shows that he has fallen in love with Ireland. Not only that, he knows a lot and is able to describe and explain how social, political and physical factors have all played a part in developing the island’s wildlife.
The opening chapter tells how today’s Irish naturalists have rediscovered a long- lost love of their island’s natural history. Included with this are brief accounts of the work over the centuries of the major Irish naturalists, a theme returned to often, and appropriately, through the book.
Viney then moves straight into a discussion of the geological events involved in the creation of Ireland. This is followed by assessment of the processes that could have enabled postglacial colonisation. He looks at a variety of theories for immigration, analysing their plausibility for major groups or in some cases particular species. The “Lusitanian” elements in the fauna and flora are difficult to explain
(Lusitania was the Roman name for the area embracing the Pyrenees and northern Spain).
Subsequent chapters provide a review of Ireland’s habitats – peatbogs, inland waters, rocky coasts, islands and sandy coastline, natural grasslands, limestone landscapes, and fern-draped woods. Here and there are fascinating portrayals of Ireland’s specialisms – the extinct ‘Irish Elk’, the Kerry slug, the Irish heathers and many others.
The final chapter, ‘Making Room for Nature’, takes a look at conservation, or lack of it, in the twentieth century. It ends optimistically with an assessment of benefits gained from membership of the European Union: not just funding but also a different approach to protection brought by measures such as the EU Habitats Directive. Above all, it has engendered a renewed enthusiasm and appreciation by the Irish of their own wildlife legacy.
All of this is related so beautifully, it’s almost as good as being there. So magical were some of the images conjured up that I felt compelled to read many passages out aloud to whoever happened to be within earshot at the time.
I do have a couple of criticisms. Although there is a collection of colour photographs in the centre of the book, most of them are rather small, and the black and white photos interspersed in the text are of poor quality. Also I was puzzled by the author’s apparently erratic system of using Latin names. At first I thought that he gave the binomial version on the first occasion he mentioned an organism, but on checking this I was wrong. The pine marten, for example, is discussed four times but never dignified once with a Latin name.
Peter Marren says Michael Viney has written a wonderful book – he has. He also advises, “Buy it, read it, and then go to Ireland”. I agree.
David Walker
a video by D. A. Riley
23 The Chestnuts, Wrentham, Beccles, Suffolk, NR34 7EZ. Price
£12.
‘Benacre Wildlife’ is an amateur video production, made by a member of the SNS. It consists entirely of wild life at Benacre and the surrounding area, filmed over four seasons. The presentation offers a visual record rather than an educational experience and would be improved by including more scientific detail in the commentary. The main content is film of vertebrates, with some footage of invertebrates including nice sequences of a few butterflies. There is an enchanting sequence of a water vole feeding and an amusing scene of frogs in tandem stoically heading for water to lay spawn. There is limited content of botanical or geological interest, however, there are some good pictures of flowering plants that are not named. Nevertheless a wide range of animal species is covered, giving a good impression of this reserve. I imagine that Benacre is far less frequently visited than, say, Minsmere but it offers a lot for the patient and determined general naturalist to study.
Despite being a bit pedestrian the voice-over commentary is pleasant, as is the background music.
The production has a quite a lot of charm and I would recommend it, especially for those unable to get into the field this summer, and at £12 for an hour and three quarters of enjoyment it’s not bad value.
David Walker
© 2004 Suffolk Naturalists' Society
used by kind permision.