**SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** One man's quest to save the bumblebee... Dave Goulson has always been obsessed with wildlife, from his childhood menagerie of exotic pets and dabbling in experimental taxidermy to his groundbreaking research into the mysterious ways of the bumblebee and his mission to protect our rarest bees. Once commonly found in the marshes of Kent, the short-haired bumblebee is now extinct in the UK, but still exists in the wilds of New Zealand, descended from a few queen bees shipped over in the nineteenth century. A Sting in the Tale tells the story of Goulson's passionate drive to reintroduce it to its native land and contains groundbreaking research into these curious creatures, history's relationship with the bumblebee, the disastrous effects intensive farming has had on our bee populations and the potential dangers if we are to continue down this path.

What happens when one making animal meets another? Gossamer Days explores the strange web of spider-human relationships. Artist and writer Eleanor Morgan has spent a decade working with spiders and their silk. Her explorations have led her in search of one of the world?s largest web weaving spiders, from the rooftops of Oxford University to a garage in Sussex. Her weaving and drawing with spider silk drew her to research the lost history of Europe?s attempt to create a spider silk weaving industry. Here, she details her findings from a life unusually spent.