Book update

[bugmadmark]

OK. Ive been updating my ageing collection of natural history books. Recent acquisitons have been

The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) - How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland (Paperback) by Francis Rose (Author), Clare O'Reilly (Author updated edition) - Excellent guide although takes a while to get used to it if you're not a skilled botanist!

Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland ISBN: 0 9531399 0 5 -Steve Brooks, illustrated by Richard Lewington. Simply beautifully illustrated and easy to read book - revised 2002. Got mine directly from the publisher (British Wildlife Publishing) for £16. I chose this on basis of reviews and fact that it was Lewingtons illustrations which are frankly superb (non expert view - I just know what i like;-) )

Now I turn to finding an up-to-date book on butterflies. I don't go to Europe much however given the speed of global warming I thought having a British and European guide could come in handy sooner than later . In another topic I said I was fortunate to own possibly the best butterfly book ever published: 'The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland' by J Thomas and R Lewington sadly out of print and not updated. I gather the distribution maps are for one are out of date - but not being an expert I have simply no idea of what is right or wrong! Looking on Amazon, I saw the 'Collins butterfy guide' updated and published in May this year is allegedly 'the most complete guide to butterflies of Britain and Europe' (-13: 9780007242344 hardback). It sounded perfect until I read reviews of errors etc on Amazon. I know there was another posting on this a few months back and I was wondering what the resident experts on here think of it now they have had time to acquire a copy/read it?

Alternatively, I considered the WildGuides 'Britain's Butterflies' Author(s): David Tomlinson and Rob Still ISBN: 1-903657-01-6 - I'm not normally a fan of photo only books as not ideal for identifiaction but there appear to be good reviews? Do you have this - its not expensive - but is it worth having? There are so many others too. Something that shows all stages - egg, larva, pupa/chrysalis, adult and foodplant may be ideal.

Anyone up to giving an overview book review? With Xmas coming up I'm getting my wish list for santa ready as I think I've been a good boy this year (Although I did have a squashed cabbage White in the grill of my car this week - I hope he will forgive me for this!)

Thanks
Mark

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Mark,

'The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland' by J Thomas and R Lewington - probably the best descriptions I've ever read for the various British species, and the illustrations are absolutely superb. I certainly treasure my copy!

'Collins butterfy guide' - focuses on Europe, with illustrations and some text. Again, superb illustrations from Mr. Lewington. However, this is considered to be a standard reference - now in its 3rd (and best) edition.

WildGuides 'Britain's Butterflies' Author(s): David Tomlinson and Rob Still - contains mainly photos, is a British Butterfly ID guide, and not a lot of text. But the "everything on a page" set of photos is pretty good for those wanting a reference for ID purposes.

So - the fundamental questions that need answering are:

1. Are you interested in British butterflies, or the whole of Europe?

2. Are you after a lot of descriptive text, or not bothered?

3. Do you prefer photos or illustrations?

Cheers,

- Pete

[bugmadmark]

Pete - Great sum up! Im hopeless at making decisions - I need to get to a bookshop and flick. If only amazon etc had more of their books with the 'look inside' feature - life would be so much easier! Im tempted with Collins book most of all. I'm hopefully going into Cambridge somepoint this week to take a look for a copy - but as a standard reference i dont think i can do too wrong with it. Thank you. Mark.

[Padfield]

If I were stuck on a desert island and allowed only three books they would be the Bible, the Complete Works of Shakespeare and the Tolman/Lewington butterfly guide. It's true that the new edition introduces stupid errors and fails to update the text - if they'd only sent me a copy I'd have proof-read it for free. However, most of the errors are either obvious or directly contradicted in the body of the text (the errors were introduced by the new format).

One inevitable downside of the book is that its comprehensive scope forces extreme brevity of treatment - so it's not much of a read, unless you're an obsessive like me. It also omits descriptions or pictures of the early stages.

Guy

[bugmadmark]

Guy - get in touch with Collins and make it Known that you and a few other Gurus on here should proof read the next volume! By the time that comes to print, global warming will be well upon us and I'll simply take the 1 book with me to my desert island. I just hope him up there lets me have an island with a Buddleia on and internet access to this site