Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
A beautiful book and one that hums with good life. Brigit Strawbridge Howard came late to bees but began noticing them at a time when their going was being widely announced. Her attention has been clear-sighted but also loving. By looking closely at the hummers and the buzzers, she has begun to take in the whole of what Charles Darwin called the 'tangled bank' of life, where there are bees (and Brigit's winning descriptions will help you know them) and there are plants, and there are other pollinators and nectar-seekers, including Homo sapiens. No other insect – surely no other animal – has had such a long and life-giving relationship with humans. Bees may well have shaped our evolution; our continued well-being is certainly dependent on them. Bees have long been part of our consciousness and art, buzzing in parables and fables and ancient and modern poems made out of their industry and their organisation and their marvellous sweet products. All that is in this book: It is ambrosia." This is most definitely a book to be read and re-read time and time again, as there is so much to enjoy many times over. You will not be disappointed. A British naturalist offers crisp essays on her relationship with bees. In her debut book, Howard, a devoted bee advocate, pens a lengthy, knowledgeable, and occasionally poetic tribute to honeybees, bumblebees, and other buzzy creatures . . . [She] provides a nice balance between the very real science of studying bees and their function in nature and her cleareyed and eloquent observations about the natural world. Because of that balance, what might have sounded like a dry lecture turns into something far more interesting. Whether she's explaining how different bee species are classified, describing her mother's deteriorating health (and eventual death), or simply ruminating on the beauty around her, Howard creates a text that is compelling and worth your time even if you're not a fellow bee advocate. So another amazing part of this communication system, which hasn't been studied as clearly, is the fact that bees can actually use sound in some ways. They can generate sounds during the waggle dance, but the primary way they use sound is they sense through vibrations. So they're not hearing the way that we hear, but they can feel these vibrations,” said Nieh. Another strong theme of the book is just how much influence these modest insects have on the natural world and, by extension, our own lives. It is only by watching bees and other insects visiting flower after flower, hour after hour, day after day, that you realise the mind-boggling enormity of the task of pollinating the flowers, trees and crops around us. Of course I ‘knew’ they did this, but somehow reading a detailed account of exactly how they did this revealed another stratum of nature which I too had ignored.
It is her tales of the wild bees, her generous sharing of her depth of knowledge, her detailed observations and her words that really bring it alive to the reader. It’s like a personal audience with the Bee Queen herself. Her descriptive, informative prose is dripping with fascinating facts about bees. If you haven’t fallen head over heels for our native, wild bees when you start reading, you will be completely besotted after just a few chapters. Nature table Reading this wonderful book, I’m left with one very large regret: that Brigit Strawbridge Howard lives and writes about nature in Britain rather than in North America. That is, the vast majority of the insects and plants whose stories she tells so compellingly do not exist anywhere near where I live. This was first brought home most starkly by her account of a queen bumblebee on the wing in February! In my part of the world, one is unlikely to spot a flying bumblebee before May. It was frustrating to find myself unable to be present on her treks around the Hebrides, Devon, Malvern and other spots, watching the mating dance of bees and butterflies, potter wasps building their elegant nests, walking past hedgerows, hosts of wildflowers, dozens of bee species unknown hereabouts; and then, the flight song of skylarks, for heaven’s sake! Dancing with Bees is a passionate hymn to nature, a joyful celebration not just of bees, but of the power of paying attention. Strawbridge Howard’s rediscovery of the natural world is infused with a sense of wonder both irresistible and infectious. And the promise of this beautiful book is that if we take the trouble to notice our natural surroundings, we too can find a way to reconnect not just to nature, but to a deeper sense of ourselves.” —Caroline Lucas, MP, former Green Party Leader We are handed a lens—light, bright, beautiful things come into focus. Brigit’s flare for observation and description, passion for knowledge, and ease with communication involve us in adventuring through the looking glass to explore with her the intimate life of wild bees. Gently, this timely book reminds us that nature is in trouble and that we must all join the dance.”— Sue Clifford and Angela King, founding directors, Common Ground
Summary
Gardening is now a prescribed therapy. Forest bathing is a recognised healing technique and just being in nature is known to restore something inside us, evoking a sense of well-being. Reading this book creates hope that the message will spread, that more and more people will see the wonder in not just the diversity of bees and insects but in the whole tapestry of life, it’s intricacies, its beauty and the importance of every single stitch that makes up the whole.
Brigit Strawbridge Howard leads us on a wistful pilgrimage of awakening into the world of bees who are among the most fascinating, charismatic, and important of insects. Written in an easy, accessible style without shying away from solid facts and beguiling detail, and beautifully illustrated by renowned Devon naturalist John Walters, Strawbridge Howard’s book is the result of hundreds of hours of watching, listening, and learning in her garden and the wider countryside, wondering what the future might bring and how human excesses may be curbed.”— Stuart Roberts, entomologist A beautiful book and one that hums with good life. Brigit Strawbridge Howard came late to bees but began noticing them at a time when their going was being widely announced. Her attention has been clear-sighted but also loving. By looking closely at the hummers and the buzzers, she has begun to take in the whole of what Charles Darwin called the 'tangled bank' of life, where there are bees (and Brigit's winning descriptions will help you know them) and there are plants, and there are other pollinators and nectar-seekers, including Homo sapiens. No other insect-surely no other animal-has had such a long and life-giving relationship with humans. Bees may well have shaped our evolution; our continued well-being is certainly dependent on them. Bees have long been part of our consciousness and art, buzzing in parables and fables and ancient and modern poems made out of their industry and their organisation and their marvellous sweet products. All that is in this book: It is ambrosia. -Tim Dee, author of Landfill
Also available in…
The words in this magical book are themselves works of art. Inspired words, beautiful words, words with purpose that weave together other familiar but strangely endangered words; like Acorn, Conker and Otter. BASCOMB: You know, I have to tell you, since I've been reading your book, I notice bees more. You know, I think I feel curious. You know, what is this bee and what's it doing, what's it's activities? Is it making a nest in the leaves or is it just poking around in there? You know, it's so fascinating once you start to look how much more you see. And then you realize how little you really know.
Dancing with Bees’ transports you right into the magical and intricate world of nature. Its accessible approach allows you to walk with Brigit as she discovers, unravels, explores and learns more about different aspects of the natural world on her doorstep and beyond. The book starts strongly, reading as part memoir, part nature documentary as Howard describes her major life events coupled with descriptions and facts about the various bee species she encounters in her native England. I enjoyed these early chapters, as I was engrossed in learning of bees what I, like the author, knew very little about previously. Howard takes a strong conservationist stance, preaching education and a reintroduction to nature as the main ways to stop the species and planetary rot. It's a timely message, and one that she isn't afraid to repeat throughout the book. Inside Science ) -- James Nieh, a professor at the University of California, San Diego says, “I study all different kinds of social bees because you really need to look at social bees to study their communication. I look at honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees.” Honeybees have this amazing ability to communicate, and it's one of the reasons why I became a biologist, because I discovered as an undergraduate that they could communicate using a waggle dance,” said Nieh. Auch schön: Selbst wenn man, wie die Autorin, irgendwann einmal den Bezug der Natur etwas verloren hat, so kann man sich jederzeit wieder dafür interessieren und etwas bewirken. Die Autorin selbst ist das beste Beispiel.
A naturalist's passionate dive into the world of bees of all stripes – what she has learned about them, and what we can learn from them.
Dancing with Bees is an antidote to the reality of modern life that's spent nose down in our smartphones while the wondrous stuff – nature – goes on all around us. Brigit Strawbridge Howard chronicles her own journey of reconnecting with the natural world with heartfelt eloquence. Her descriptions of the creatures, plants, and landscapes that populate her journey are made with the unabashed joy of someone for whom a veil has been lifted, revealing a world to be cherished but also in great need of our protection."As the author points out in the book, when she realised she knew more about the French Revolution than the native trees she walked past every afternoon on her way to work, realisation dawned. Through the delightful prose of her book, I feel sure this aspect of all our lives will find resonance with readers as well, for this eloquent memoir of reconnecting with the natural world and discovering a particular love for bees, is a pure delight. BASCOMB: In your journey to learn about bees, you learned a lot. I mean, there are thousands of different species of bees, as you mentioned, and many of us probably just think of honey bees, maybe bumble bees, but how many species are there and, and what you know, really sets them apart from each other? I am so tired of hearing about the importance of 'economic growth' - and I despair of humanity if we have reached the stage where wildlife is only conserved for its monetary value. The same goes for water, air, and soil quality. Every time I hear references these days to the natural world and its importance to us (the human race), the commentary is dotted with phrases like 'natural resources', 'ecosystem services', 'pollinator services', 'natural capital' etc. Phrases such as these make me wince. I have tried to understand them, but I simply cannot. A joy-filled voyage of discovery through the wonderful world of bees.”— Dave Goulson, author of Bee Quest and A Sting in the Tale It’s like a living nature table, as she introduces each and every item for our delectation and attention and breathes life into it, tantalizing all the senses with her words. Distant shores
Great Deal 
New Comment