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Summary
Summary
A CONSERVATIONIST'S DEEPLY PERSONAL AND FASCINATING REFLECTION ON OWNING AND REVITALIZING A FARM IN RURAL FRANCE
A Sting in the Tale , Dave Goulson's account of a lifetime studying bees, was a powerful call to arms for nature lovers everywhere. Brilliantly reviewed, it was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best nonfiction book of the year, and debuted the already renowned conservationist's ability to charm and educate, and tell an absorbing story.
In A Buzz in the Meadow , Goulson returns to tell the tale of how he bought a derelict farm in the heart of rural France. Over the course of a decade, on thirty-three acres of meadow, he created a place for his beloved bumblebees to thrive. But other creatures live there too, myriad insects of every kind, many of which Goulson had studied before in his career as a biologist. You'll learn how a deathwatch beetle finds its mate, why butterflies have spots on their wings, and see how a real scientist actually conducts his experiments.
But this book is also a wake-up call, urging us to cherish and protect life in all its forms. Goulson has that rare ability to persuade you to go out into your garden or local park and observe the natural world. The undiscovered glory that is life in all its forms is there to be discovered. And if we learn to value what we have, perhaps we will find a way to keep it.
Author Notes
DAVE GOULSON studied biology at Oxford University and is now a professor of biological sciences at the University of Stirling. He founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, whose groundbreaking conservation work earned him the Heritage Lottery Award for Best Environmental Project and "Social Innovator of the Year" from the Biology and Biotechnology Research Council. His previous book, A Sting in the Tale, was a Seattle Times Best Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In 2003, British biologist Goulson (A Sting in the Tale) bought Chez Nauche, "a derelict farm deep in the heart of rural France," with the intention of establishing a wildlife sanctuary: "a place where butterflies, dragonflies, voles and newts could thrive, free from the pressures of modern agriculture." Discussion in this nostalgic and earnest volume revolves around the plants and animals that live on Goulson's "little corner of the French countryside," and he reflects on his professional past while looking to the future. Ever the scientist, Goulson details the ways in which "creatures in the meadow" are connected to one another as well as to their surroundings. He champions their delicate ecosystem, urging readers to "cherish life on Earth in all its forms," and he explains many of the roles that insects play. "They can be predators, parasites, herbivores or detritivores." Some live in large colonies. Others spend years alone in the darkness. Chapters on the "extraordinarily varied and often bizarre" mating habits of insects prove especially intriguing. Whether he's describing the quotidian existence of insects on his farm or sounding cautionary notes about the natural environment, Goulson appreciates the smallest things in the world and hopes others can do the same. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In this engaging title, conservationist Goulson (A Sting in the Tale, 2014) delivers an entertaining account of life on his farm in rural France. The purchase of the long-neglected property allowed him to immerse himself in an area that was largely untouched and pristine, a place where wildlife took precedence over development. Turning his careful eye on the smallest of species, in successive chapters he shares his observations of dragonflies and flowers, butterflies and bees, while ruminating on their overall contributions to his corner of the world. Unexpectedly, Goulson also moves beyond his home to reflect on the work of biologists of the past and present, particularly when considering the critical state of the world's pollinators, for whom he issues a gentle call to arms. The book is, therefore, less a meditative reflection of wildlife in the country and more an artful blend of E. O. Wilson and Barry Lopez, with a continental flair. Backyard naturalists, regardless of their locale, will delight in the amiable company of this witty and thoughtful guide.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing, by Laura J. Snyder. (Norton, $17.95.) As lenses became more refined in the 17th century, a fabric-merchant-turned-naturalist and a painter in Holland used the developments to advance their own pursuits. Van Leeuwenhoek, using the small microscopes that he built, discovered a world of microbes in droplets of water; Vermeer, using a camera obscura, toyed with light and illumination and how people perceive them. A CURE FOR SUICIDE, by Jesse Ball. (Vintage, $16.) An unnamed man, who came close to death, is convalescing in a village where a woman, called the "examiner," teaches him the basics of how to live: what sleep is, how to dress, why people have names. Ball's fifth novel elegantly examines the process of rebuilding a life from nothing, and how pain shapes a person's identity. BLACKOUT: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, by Sarah Hepola. (Grand Central, $ 15.99.) At 7 years of age, Hepola first began sneaking sips of beer and developed a taste for alcohol that stretched into a decades-long addiction. She acknowledges the inherent paradox of her project - how can she write about the hours that she cannot recall? - but captures the vagaries of alcoholism with honesty and humor. GOLDEN AGE, by Jane Smiley. (Anchor, $16.) The final volume of Smiley's trilogy following the Langdon family opens in 1987 and runs through 2019. The Langdons have dispersed throughout the country and face a host of political, economic and environmental challenges. Though the story's cast has swelled, Smiley expertly links each person's story to the past. "You can feel the weight of what came before," Louisa Thomas wrote here. A BUZZ IN THE MEADOW: The Natural History of a French Farm, by Dave Goulson. (Picador, $16.) When Goulson, a biologist and conservationist, purchased a run-down farmstead in rural France, he sought to preserve the property's diverse ecosystem. Here, he tells the story of the creatures that live there - offering insights into such subjects as the "complex politics of life as a paper wasp," among others. His book functions as a joyful call to arms for conservation efforts. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SOPHIE STARK, by Anna North. (Blue Rider, $16.) Sophie, the title character of North's novel, is a filmmaker whose work draws praise for its emotional precision. Her story, told by people who once knew her, "illustrates just how far an artist will go in pursuit of authentic expression," our reviewer, Sarah Fetguson, wrote. ONE NATION UNDER GOD: How Corporate America Invented Christian America, by Kevin M. Kruse. (Basic Books, $17.50.) Kruse, a Princeton historian, reveals how the four words of the title became enshrined as political gospel in the 1950s. Starting with Dwight D. Eisenhower, religious businessmen and lawmakers worked to integrate religion more closely into government functions.
Guardian Review
A melancholy, humorous look at butterflies, beetles and bees -- and how disastrous it would be if we let them die out Calico Drum, The Grasshoppers come, The Butterfly, Beetle, and Bee, Over the ground, Around and around, With a hop and a bound... Edward Lear 's "Calico Pie" has always struck me as powerfully affecting, and so I would have already been drawn to this book -- as it is about butterflies, beetles and bees (not grasshoppers so much, but you can't have everything) -- even if it had not been written by one of my favourite nature writers, Dave Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex. His earlier book, A Sting in the Tale, about bumblebees, I enthusiastically reviewed in this column a year ago, and I'm glad to see another appear so soon. His energy is not reserved solely for writing: each chapter in the latest book is headed, Bridget Jones style, with an italicised account of how quickly he completed his morning run of 5.8 miles, and who and what he met along the way. (Curiously, all other measurements are metric, except for a terrible proofreading slip in the first line of the first chapter: "We inhabit a spherical rock, just 13,000 kilometres miles [sic] across". It's shocking for a major publishing house to let this kind of mistake get to paperback stage.) This is, perhaps, a more serious and in some ways melancholy book than A Sting in the Tale. But I'm using such terms relatively: for Professor Goulson is a most amusing writer, which makes the times when he is being minatory all the more striking. His comic technique is the deftly inserted word. He talks at one point about that calculation our genes are said to make, or that we make on behalf of our genes -- the one that suggests that we would sacrifice our life for three siblings, we would be evenly split on doing so for two, and we would not do so for one, because of the proportion of genes they share with us. I had never been wholly convinced of this idea, but he mentions wills or kidnapping as analogies for such behaviour in real life, which bring home the point very well. He had just been talking about how aphids and bees reproduce, the former asexually: "I am getting perhaps a little off the point; aphids and bees do not make wills, and they do not generally get kidnapped." It is the "generally" that makes us laugh. And it is laughter, or rather the joy of life that is expressed by laughter, that knits A Buzz in the Meadow together. Unlike his last book, it is not about one thing (although I am delighted to see the return of my favourite naughty-sounding bee, the ruderal bumblebee) but many. Subjects covered include the sex lives of flies (when one lands on your shoelace, it is so stupid and/or randy that it is actually trying to have sex with it) and other insects, such as the deathwatch beetle, which ejaculates staggering amounts of sperm, the human equivalent of 14 litres; the evolution of butterflies (give this book to a creationist, if you know any); and the effect of neonicotinoid insecticides on the environment. It is this that sets him off on his most resonant and uncomfortable chapter, "Easter Island", in which he uses, after Jared Diamond, the example of the famous remote settlement to describe our own future on Earth if we continue our stewardship in the same slipshod and thoughtless way. If you have any notions about primitive humanity living in harmony with the planet, prepare to shed them. We are not only awful now; we always have been. And the possible extinction of insects will be disastrous for us all; and, of course, immeasurably more disastrous for them. Remember how the lines that follow from the Lear quote given above go: But they never came back to me! They never came back! They never came back! They never came back to me! * To order A Buzz in the Meadow for [pound]7.19 (RRP [pound]8.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over [pound]10, online orders only. Phone orders min P&P of [pound]1.99. - Nicholas Lezard.
Kirkus Review
When we speak of endangered species, our focus is usually on the plight of mammals. However, writes Goulson (Biological and Environmental Sciences/Univ. of Sterling; A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees, 2014, etc.), they are only a small section of the "perhaps ten-million different species," many yet to be named, that inhabit our planet and play a critical role in maintaining its ecosystems.In 2003, the author, founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, purchased a derelict farmhouse and 33-acre meadow in the French countryside. His aim was to transform the run-down property into a wildlife sanctuary to shelter and preserve the habitats of "the smaller, everyday creatures that live around us." The author's professional specialty, the study of bees, prompted his involvement in efforts to determine the cause of the disastrous, worldwide decline in the honeybee population, which plays a crucial role in pollination. An early hypothesis blamed the introduction of a nicotine-based pesticide applied to seeds before planting, as a substitute for aerial spraying. Goulson and his collaborators confirmed that this wasn't the case, but they found that the reproductive rates of queen bees, which ate the nectar brought back by the worker bees, were sharply reduced. Furthermore, the worker bees exhibited cognitive problems. Equally alarming, recent evidence indicates a buildup of the pesticide in soils and waterways. The pesticide has been temporarily banned in Europe but is still in use in America. On a lighter note, the author explains how the tapping of beetles in search of a mate was once fancifully compared to the devil tapping his fingers. Their residence of choice is old timber, including that of his farmhouse, which is also home to dormice and other creatures. Though he celebrates the majority of species living on his land, disease-bearing flies, he says, are less welcome. "Go outside," he urges readers, "look and listen." A charming but serious warning of the need to protect our natural ecosystems from heedless, irreversible destruction. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Goulson (biological sciences, Univ. of Stirling; A Sting in the Tale) woos readers with a personable tale of his well-intentioned (and sometimes bumbling) mission to create a natural environment for wildlife on a derelict plot of French land. The memoir introduces concepts of genetics, entomology, botany, and environmental science as the author's true goal becomes clear-he seeks to provide a warning eerily like that in Rachel Carson's pioneering Silent Spring. Goulson recounts his research on the effects of modern-day pesticides on bees and the political muddling that followed, and charges his readers to consider what our future will hold if we choose not to take action similar to that of Carson's readers more than 50 years ago. Speaking for an untold number of organisms, whose role in our environment remains unknown, Goulson adds a compelling voice to the long list of scientists he cites. Environmentalists will champion the author's message, students and professors of the natural sciences will want to read this work, and anyone who eats food will need to. VERDICT A strong voice in the canon of environmental writings, a call to action, and a relatable narrative combine in this highly recommended text.-Jaime Corris Hammond, Naugatuck Valley -Community Coll. Lib., Waterbury, CT © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.