Having recently read that a new volume of the New Naturalist Library was soon to be available, I had an intuition that Mark Avery already had a copy of it and would soon be publishing one of his Sunday Book Reviews about it. So paying a visit to his blog today I was not on the least surprised to discover that the subject of his most recent review is, of course, David Wilkinson’s “Ecology and Natural History,” New Naturalist Library volume 143.
What with my knee surgery at the beginning of June, and the complications arising therefrom, I’ve been quite remiss in my both my own writing as well as keeping up with the writing of others. Now that I’m finally beginning to see a bit of healing and a turn toward a desired direction in my recovery, I’ve begun trying to catch up on what I have missed – most pertinent to this column, the Sunday Book Reviews of Dr. Mark Avery.
What with the WildGuides imprint originally being a British publishing enterprise before joining Princeton University Press, it’s not surprising that their remarkably thorough and innovative field guides make their first appearances in the UK before being seen in the US. Such is the case with the forthcoming ‘Britain’s Insects; A Field Guide to the Insects of Great Britain and Ireland’ by Dr. Paul D. Brock.
Once again, Mark Avery has not only pipped me to the post, he’s positively pummeled me to it. Not only has he already received a copy of James Lowen’s forthcoming book “Much Ado About Mothing; A Year Intoxicated by Britain’s Rare and Remarkable Moths,” he’s read it and published his review. Meanwhile, here I sit, far from dear old Blighty, hoping against hope that a copy might one day reach me.