- The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets off the World's Favourite Insects, by Wendy Williams. Simon & Schuster. $26.
Wendy Williams's book is a fascinating work of natural history, dealing with creatures that often seem almost too beautiful to be real. She recounts our gradual understanding of the butterfly - and its less beloved cousin, the moth - in an entertaining way.
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We learn of the ways people discovered the link between the lowly caterpillar, the cocoon, and the eventual butterfly. The epic journeys of some butterflies, notably from Canada and the northern United States to Mexico, are contrasted with butterflies who stay in the one place. Moths are found in far greater numbers throughout the world, as they evolved before flowering plants. The wonderful colours of butterflies are explored through the structure of the scales on their wings, and the nature of their eyes is also described. Each fact about the Lepidoptera is revealed engagingly, as we follow the author's search for information.
Well-known people such as Charles Darwin and Vladimir Nabokov (a butterfly expert, as well as a novelist) are to be found in the pages, alongside lesser-known figures. Most remarkable is the story of 17th-century Maria Sibylla Merian, who mounted her own expedition of discovery, sailing to Suriname in 1699, specifically to find out more about butterflies. Williams writes that this was the first time anyone, male or female, crossed the Atlantic for the purposes of independent research.
The only fault with the book is that, just occasionally, it seems to try a little too much to be amusing - for example, when she writes "Even nighttime creatures like moths and bats and hermit crabs and teenage boys are ruled by the twenty-four-hour day". On the other hand, the convivial and personal tone throughout the book makes it accessible even for those with no scientific knowledge at all.
One of the characteristics the author mentions a few times as humorous is the long-winded nature of 19th-century scientific book titles, such as Darwin's The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms: With Observations on Their Habits. It must be said that these are no longer than the extended title of the The Language of Butterflies, as given above!
This is a lovely book, befitting its subject, and it is written in engaging prose. The last section, dealing with threats to the future of butterflies, adds a more sober tone.
The Language of Butterflies presents a vivid portrait of these mysterious insects, and the people who have sought to understand, and to protect them.
- Penelope Cottier writes poetry as PS Cottier
