In her recently published book “Beastly Britain; An Animal History,” Prof. Karen R. Jones delights her readers with recountings of the natural as well as social, folkloric, literary, and even linguistic histories of ten iconic British animal species.
Megalodons and mermaids! Upon opening the package that contained a copy of the newly published book “Megalodons, Mermaids, and Climate Change; Answers to Your Ocean and Atmosphere Questions” by Dr. Ellen Prager and Dave Jones, I immediately thought how superbly appropriate the beginning of the title would be to have been included in Captain Nancy Blackett’s collection of colourful and creative oaths.
Of all the parts of Scotland that look like places a naturalist such as myself would wish to remain all my days, the Isle of Mull in the inner Hebrides off the country’s west coat is most certainly at the top of the list.
If asked to suggest an author who would be the most likely to be successful in setting the record straight in regard to the public reputation of a much-maligned and widely unpopular insect, I would immediately recommend Richard Jones. After all, given what he was able to do with mosquitoes, and common household “pests,” to say nothing of his writings about feces, it stands to reason that he could quite likely make even the most vitriolic haters of any given creature reconsider their opinions.