As a passionate dragonfly enthusiast I'm absolutely over the moon with this wonderfully produced new book the
Atlas of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland which is a 280 page 'master-work' that takes thousands of dragonfly & damsely records from thousands of recorders (my own included
) from all over these islands, the result is probably the most important and significant species status document on British and Irish Odonata to date. This Atlas provides the enthusiast, casual observer or professional ecologist with essential status information on all of our regions 57 species. Quite apart from the many excellent maps, charts and graphics are the superb images of the insects themselves and their all important habitats, the photographers work included in this tome is of the highest quality and a real joy to peruse, and I'm stating this as a keen photo enthusiast as well as a naturalist (and book collector)!!!
- From cover of the new Atlas (Cover image: Red-eyed Damselfly)
This Atlas has top quality hard card covers and there's also top quality paper between those covers, it should stand up to the rigours of regular 'dipping-in' for general information or reference without fear of any handling damage, it's a quality printing without any expense saving cost cutting - so top marks to the
British Dragonfly Society 
The Editors; Steve Cham, Brian Nelson, Adrian Parr, Steve Prentice, Dave Smallshire and Pam Taylor deserve every accolade for the way this long term project has been put together and the results will be the bedrock for dragonfly reference for many years to come.
- Back cover with brief overview of the new Atlas
Each species has three full A4 format pages devoted to it, the account covers; Distribution, Habitat, Conservation (status & threats) and National trends. The maps are large, concise and clear to understand while the many habitat images are a delight to behold and come from all areas of the region. This highly recommended new book has a retail price of £32 plus postage and is available direct from the
British Dragonfly Society which incidentally needs and thoroughly deserves every bit of help it can get.
It pleases me to know that
UK Butterflies allows reviews such as this...
many thanks.
Bill
