Illustrations by Pamela Johnson

"Why is it that insects often inspire such good writing? You think of Jean Henri Fabre, William Morton Wheeler, you think of Howard Evans' Wasp Farm. To these classics we must now add The Queen Must Die, an altogether pleasing ethnography of the beehive." —Jake Page

"A very fine book indeed. . . . Longgood's Thoreauvian patience and powers of observation . . . make The Queen Must Die a special book." —James Kauffman, Christian Science Monitor

"Longgood's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious. He supplies a fund of unfamiliar information about a changeless civilization buzzing about its business just outside our attention." —Walter Clemons, Newsweek

"The remarkable complex social order of bees leads the least speculative to speculate, and Longgood's speculations, leavened with quiet wit, are of a high order of stylish imagination." —Los Angeles Times

"A beautiful book about one of nature's most industrious, 'work-or-die' insects. . . . Fascinating reading." —Rocky Mountain News

"A garden is what you make of it," writes William Longgood, a man devoted to fighting an honorable war against beetles, respecting the noble origins of common weeds, developing an affinity for slugs, and becoming a connoiseur of high-quality manure. Not in any way a traditional gardening book, Voices from the Earth is an exploration of those aspects of gardening that are ever present but not often discussed: the vagaries and treacheries of weather; the perversity of the seasons; the complexity and cleverness of insects; the continuing cycle of life and death; compost and immortality; and the sights, sounds, and aromas of gardens. Longgood also contemplates the nether world of invisible soil organisms and other creatures that make life possible, the mysteries of unidentified plant diseases, seeds that do not germinate, seedlings that refuse to grow, plants that fail to reproduce for no known rational reason, gardening triumphs and disasters, visitors and volunteers. Laced with humor and a gentle philosophy, this engaging book is a personal reflection on the nature of gardens and humans.