James Lowen narrates a year-long quest to see Britain's rarest and
more remarkable moths.
Although mostly unseen by us, moths are everywhere. And their capacity
to delight astounds.
Inspired by a revelatory encounter with a Poplar Hawk-moth - a huge,
velvety-winged wonder wrapped in silver - James Lowen embarks on a
year-long quest to celebrate the joy of Britain's rarest and most
remarkable moths. By hiking up mountains, wading through marshes and
roaming by night amid ancient woodlands, James follows the trails of
both Victorian collectors and present-day conservationists. Seeking to
understand why they and many ordinary folk love what the general public
purports to hate, his investigations reveal a heady world of criminality
and controversy, derring-do and determination.
From Cornwall to the Cairngorms, James explores British landscapes to
coax these much-maligned creatures out from the cover of darkness and
into the light. Moths are revealed to be attractive, astonishing and
approachable; capable of migratory feats and camouflage mastery, moths
have much to tell us on the state of the nation's wild and not-so-wild
habitats.
As a counterweight to his travels, James and his young daughter track
the seasons through a kaleidoscope of moth species living innocently yet
covertly in their suburban garden. Without even leaving home, they bond
over a shared joy in the uncommon beauty of common creatures, for
perhaps the greatest virtue of moths, we learn, is their accessibility.
Moths may be everywhere, but above all, they are here. Quite
unexpectedly, no animals may be better placed to inspire the
environmentalists of the future.
