Opinion

• Book information
• Fireflies, Honey, and Silk by Gilbert Waldbauer
• Published by: University of California Press
• Price: $25.95/£17.95

EAT them, wear them, write with them. Entomologist Gilbert Waldbauer's wonderful meander through the world of insects is an unexpected delight. The series of stories in Fireflies, Honey, and Silk is the sort of idiosyncratic stream of consciousness that shouldn't work. But it does, and it flows with ease as his obvious love for, and obsession with, all things insect cascades from the page.

Whether it is the fortunes made and lost in the dyeing industry, the delicate skill of fly-fishing, firefly jewellery, cricket companions or the medicinal capacities of honey or maggots, Waldbauer's passion makes this the perfect cure for all those who harbour deep-seated anxieties about the creeping, crawling, six-legged masters of the planet. Reading this book is like sitting at the feet of a favourite uncle on a winter evening beside a crackling fire - I wish he had been one of my lecturers when I was a student.

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