Product Description

The aim of this book is to help readers discover butterflies. It has detailed descriptions and photographs of 66 good places to find butterflies. They have been chosen not only because of the butterflies there, but because they are lovely places to visit in their own right. The sites have been chosen so that readers will be led to at least one hotspot for every British species.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #314959 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Pure Poetry
This practical guide to locating rarer species of butterfies in Britain is beautifully produced and appears to be pleasingly factually accurate.

"The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies of Britain and Ireland" of a few years ago set a really high bar for books on this subject, and this slimmer work by D F Newland in no ways tries to compete with the massive, authoratative "Atlas..." Instead, it is a labour of love by one writer, passing on details of 100 or so sites to explore where interesting butterfies can be found.

The fact that it is such a personal work is the real strength of this book, modern Nature works do not always convey the enthusiasm of the author(s), something every word and photograph accomplishes here. In his acknowlegdements, Newland thanks his wife, who has accompanied him on his field trips; in fact she has contributed to the work too, adding a short poem to many of the site descriptions. These could easily have been twee, but in fact, are uniformly enjoyable, often a little odd, and do add a sense of place. For example :
"At Grafton,when bluebells abound
Prepare to walk on muddy ground."
A rather unusual aspect to a book of this sort and good fun.

Personally, I would have preferred more site descriptions to the descriptions of species that fill the last part of the book, but at least these give the author a chance to display more of his fine photographs.

Discover Butterflies in Britain
I looked through this book at a sitting I could not put it down. I've never had such a clear way to identify butterflies and to know where to look for them, The pictures were beautiful and the directions were clear. The only slight criticism is that the book os too big to put in my pocket!

A work of passion
The author's passion for butterflies shines through this well illustrated book. For me, however, my expectation was not fully delivered. In reality only one site per butterfly is featured with a mention of some of the other butterflies at those sites. Also West Sussex seemed to hardly feature at all. Apart from these petty gripes, the book is interesting to read and it inspires by sharing a little of the magic of butterflies.