OK, it’s time to sort out the old book review website. I intend to write all new book reviews here, if the experiment works that is, and then – phase 2 – to move all the old nature book reviews from the static web pages to here as well, so they’re all searchable and suchlike. Of course if it’s less convenient..

So, A Sting in the Tale. It’s fairly clear from the dust jacket that Goulson is going to write about bumblebees. I admit I went ‘hmm’, wondering how exactly bees were going to fill a book – my heart goes out to all publishers, literary agents and magazine editors who have to leaf through wads of badly-written stuff in the faint hope of finding something exciting to read, for once.

But by the second page of the Prologue I was captivated, and I’m happy to report the feeling of pleasurable excitement, recognition of shared enthusiasm for nature, and admiration for terrific natural history knowledge (and jolly good writing and editing) stayed with me until the end of the book. In fact it left me wanting more, a sure sign of success, something rarer than hen’s teeth on the bookshelves.

What grabbed my attention in the Prologue was that the seven-year-old Goulson was totally, absolutely, delightfully nature-mad. How many boys train honeysuckle up the shed to feed moths, plant pussy willow to give bees early spring food, or actually dig a pond and stock it with newts, sticklebacks and other beasts from the canal? It sounds marvellous fun. Mind you, we did build dams across the stream and … I think children back then were allowed out a lot more than they are today. But I digress.

What is fantastic about this book is that every chapter tells something new – I guarantee you haven’t heard of the sort of facts that Goulson has at his fingertips. He even dares to explain the “very complicated” genetics of bee sex – believe me, it really is worse than you remember. Goulson lectures on it every year, and he notes that half the students doze off every time. Somehow, he’s made it fun, because I read that chapter straight through, and believed I understood it all by the end. In other words, Goulson has the rare gift of being able to explain anything. As you go, you do dimly realize you’ve just understood something that most of the human race doesn’t have a clue about, which is rather fun. Along the way, too, you discover just how fascinating bumblebees are, and how vital they are for healthy ecosystems, and for our food supply. You also find out how much trouble they are in, and even better, what Goulson and others are doing to save them.

What a super book. Do buy it. You won’t regret it.
Buy it from Amazon.com (commission paid)
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk (commission paid)