Robert Bateman’s love of the natural world is clearly evident in this 25th Anniversary edition of his first book. While being scientifically accurate his paintings are essentially a celebration of wild things and wild places. He avoids sentimentality, while evoking the beauty and splendour of the world around him. Whether it’s a pair of loons gliding serenenly across a lake, or a more frenetic scene of a peregrine diving after a swift, Bateman creates an honest and enduring image.

The Art of Robert Bateman is an inspirational book, born from one man’s passion and dedication to wildlife; a great artist and a great naturalist, Bateman is a master of the wildlife-art genre. If you have a fervour and zeal for the beauty of the natural world, indulge your passion with this book. Available at NHBS from early November.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

A concise overview of the world’s 107 spider families is an impressive undertaking and this fine book by two devoted arachnologists does justice to such a project. This is certainly timely as it’s being over a century since the last overview and this will be a must-have title for anyone with a passion for spiders.

Each family is beautifully illustrated with a splendid black and white representation of the whole spider, accompanied by small details of distinguishing features. There are also 32 pages of colour plates at the back of the book depicting the spiders in their natural habitat. With such comprehensive visual reference all back up with text highlighting habits and characteristics this is an indispensable reference work.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

In this new and beautifully illustrated guide to finding butterflies D.E. Newland takes us to some of his favourite butterfly hotspots.

Sent off with our appropriate OS map number and grid reference, guided by photographs and detailed descriptions in how to find the exact path or plant to watch, you feel it almost impossible to miss the tricksy butterfly you are seeking.

Each area’s natural environment is briefly described to help us understand the nature of our butterfly’s habitat and we are also guided in how to protect against our own actions being any cause of damage.

A truly delightful guide, perfect for sunny days and/or British holidays.

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Popularity: 23% [?]

This first standardised English-language nomenclature of all living birds is the result of a decade of hard work from Frank Gill, Minturn Wright and their co-researchers to produce and justify a list of over 10,000 names.

As someone who can’t remember scientific names, likes to spot a bird or two when travelling but is aware that names can change frequently in guidebooks this is an amazing and happy feat, one I see being equally well received by any global birder, government official and let’s not exclude the many employees of all those publishing housing and bookshops.

‘Birds of the World’ is endorsed by the pre-eminent International Ornithological Conference. It lists names in taxonomic order, along side species names, and brief descriptions of the bird’s geographical location and breeding range. And for those of you more technologically minded, an accompanying CD contains the full text in Excel format to enable you to search, sort, edit and export to your hearts content.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Have you ever felt depressed at the sight of a ‘legoland lawn’? You know the kind of garden I mean? One of those perfectly trimmed and lifeless looking rectangles of grass completely free of insect, frog or bird? A lawn you walk beside, instead of on, in case you ruffle it? You might even have a legoland lawn outside your door. I do. But that’s only because I’ve just moved into a new house. What I’d really like to see is something wild inside my garden fence – a hedgehog or a butterfly…

No Nettles Required is a guidebook for for anyone with the lego-lawn blues. It shows us how easy it is to fill our gardens with everything from foxes, frogs and mice to butterflies, ladybirds and literally thousands of fascinating creepy-crawlies. Why should we? Because we’ll be promoting the biodiversity of the UK, we’ll be reconnecting with nature, getting more from our gardens, and we’ll be doing our plants a favour.

“‘Fantastic science writing for a lay audience, with sentences such as, “Hoverfly larvae look like lumps of animated snot…but they look far worse if you’re an aphid.”‘ – From a review by Steve Head in the New Scientist

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Popularity: 36% [?]

With all the unique Natural History titles available at NHBS, would you be able to guess our current top 10 most popular books? If you are still curious about our current bestsellers then you must have missed our Top 10 Current Bestseller List situated on the lower left hand side of the NHBS home page.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

Big Cat Week (Big Cat Diary Series 1 and 2) A BBC series profiling the lives of Africa’s big cats over a two-year period in the Masai Mara, Kenya. Series One follows the Marsh Pride of lions that rely on Simba to defend them when two young males from another territory threaten them. Also features Kike the cheetah and Bella the leopard. Series Two follows the unlikely pairing of Cheza and Sala and re-visits Kike and Bella. Now in Stock!

Speaking of Big Cats…lets talk about the ‘Queen’ of the Mara! This orphaned star of BBC TV’s Big Cat Diary with the unlikely name of ‘Petal’ took her ‘foster-father’ David Drummond on an incredible wild adventure. Imagine suddenly becoming the foster parent of not only Petal, but four more orphaned little cheetahs: Hopeless, Hackles, Whispers and Prickles, in the heart of the great Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. You can read about David and Petal’s fascinating story is this beautiful new hardback book filled with subtle humour, personal reminiscence and high-quality colour photography. Now also in stock at NHBS.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

According to a recent article by Richard Mabey in BBC Wildlife Magazine ‘It’s orchid time again.’ In the article, Mabey asks, ‘What is it about the orchid tribe that casts such spells over us?’ Mabey also questions why we consider orchids sexy. ‘Certainly,’ he writes, ‘orchid’s uncanny and often suggestive resemblances (they were named orchis for their tubers’ likeness to testicles) are part of their glamour.’

Do you have an enthusiasm for orchids? If so, you must check out some of the latest orchid titles available from NHBS! Below are two intriguing examples of orchid books available, along with a couple of orchid brainteasers:

An Enthusiasm for Orchids
John Alcock

The male thynnine wasp’s extreme sexual enthusiasm is crucial to reproduction of hammer orchids in the wild. While pollinating orchids is a waste of time, and thus a maladaptive activity for a wasp, his mistake comes about because he must react quickly whenever he senses a possible mate nearby.

for insects, he who hesitates is lost, although perhaps it would be better to say that he who hesitates often loses a chance to pass on his genes. –John Alcock

Question: How have Hammer orchids co-evolved to trick the thynnine wasp?

Orchids of Mexico
Eric Hagsater et al

This stunning book presents the great diversity of form and colour adopted by the species of family Orchidaceae in Mexico.

Question: The Mexican orchids include over a) 120 species b) 520 species c) 1200 species?

To discover the secrets of the Hammer orchids and to view other superb orchid titles available at NHBS please click here.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

We are in ‘raptors’ about this exciting forthcoming title: Raptors: A Field Guide to Survey and Monitoring, and we hope that you will seize this opportunity (you can place an order in advance to receive your copy in early July hot off the press!) to get your talons on it.

Written and edited by members of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Group, this book draws on the knowledge and experience of over 300 raptor specialists and has been funded by Scottish Natural Heritage with assistance from the other Statutory Conservation Agencies in Britain and Ireland, as well as non-government bodies concerned with birds of prey. It includes a CD-ROM containing raptor calls, and sets out to promote best practice for the survey and monitoring of raptors. It is hoped that it will provide a starting point for anyone wanting to begin a raptor study, and indeed to encourage a new generation of raptor ecologists.

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Popularity: 28% [?]