If a friend were to ask you to recommend a modern book – just one – that would help him or her to understand your fascination with natural history, you’d likely be hard pressed to do it. I know I certainly would. After all, there are so many excellent works that have been published within this wide-ranging category over the past fifty years that picking just one would be quite a challenge indeed.
The British Wildlife Collection was inaugurated in 2012 with the publication of Peter Marren’s “Mushrooms” and has now reached its tenth volume with the upcoming publication in April 2021 of Martin Warren’s “Butterflies.” Not surprisingly, Mark, being Mark, has got hold of an advance copy for review.
Originally published to noteworthy acclaim in 2017, “Britain’s Spiders” from the Princeton University Press WILDGuides series has now been fully revised and updated into a second edition by the authorial team of Lawrence Bee, Geoff Oxford, and Helen Smith.
As a life-long resident of the U.S. state of Oregon, I find it absolutely galling how many of the field guides to the plants, animals, and fungi of this country are limited in their geographic range to the eastern portion of it. So when I learn of a new one being published that focuses the western U.S., I immediately take notice.