It seems I’m on a roll with nature writing at the moment – after Chris Packham’s memoir (with almost poetic reflections on the wildlife he encountered) I dived straight in to Dave Goulson’s third book on bees (and other creepy-crawlies) . I’m not sure why I haven’t read the other two (apart from the usual #somanybookstoolittletime) because I did spend quite a lot of time in the last ten years or so campaigning for Friends of the Earth in general (and bees in particular). After all that I thought I knew quite a lot about the subject but, compared to Goulson, I knew much less than I thought. What I particularly loved about this book is the way that I learned so much almost effortlessly!
I learned a lot, particularly, about conservation which is a rather counter-intuitive field. I would never have considered, for example, that green-field sites often contain much less biodiversity than brown-field ones. Or that the few animals whose presence can delay developments (bats and great crested newts) are actually much less rare or endangered than many of our native invertebrates. It is, it seems, easier to gain sympathy for creatures with backbones than for those without (no matter how beautiful, scare or economically useful in terms of pest control or pollination). I’m certainly going to be much kinder to the bugs in my own garden (leaving some of it wild and unkempt is already second nature, or possibly laziness…)
Goulson is a man who is, self-admittedly, stuck in his 10 year-old ‘bug phase’ and who has used his love of invertebrates in general to carve out a career as a university biology lecturer. I would hope his students do very well as his way of imparting information seems to be both thorough and entertaining – he obviously not only knows his stuff but is hugely passionate about it. In particular he is very eloquent on the subject of conservation – not just for bees and other animals but also for our own benefit. His closing words are a hope that children, in the future, will still have the chance to get out into nature: to explore green spaces and muddy puddles, to get dirty and to meet our wildlife face to face. I’m of an age with Goulson and was lucky enough to have that kind of childhood (rarely indoors during daylight in decent weather, frequently filthy and with a wide range of pets which included a fish-tank full of woodlice). I can really heartily recommend it!
Jane
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