Understanding, loving and protecting butterflies—in all their enchantments.
Butterflies have enchanted and intrigued us for centuries. From the eighteenth-century ‘aurelians’, through the Victorian ‘golden age’ of collecting to the twentieth-century focus on conservation, humans have chased glimpses of these beautiful but elusive creatures. Winding through literature, art, music, and dreams, The Butterfly: Flights of Enchantment uncovers why butterflies continue to inhabit such a profound place in our imagination. Today, the art of butterfly-watching can be a mindfulness practice for many; a Romantic escape from our industrialized existences.
A first of its kind in combining the history of human interest in butterflies with a guide to practical observation, this pocket guide encourages us to nurture our curiosity and head out into our local environment, focusing on edgeland habitats that are home to many species.
It is perhaps because butterflies are so fragile and fleeting that we are so beguiled by them. But now, as numbers dwindle, they have never been more difficult to spot.
The Butterfly paves the way toward uncovering the history of our fascination with butterflies and learning how to spot and identify them.
Table of Content
I: A Personal History
My Butterfly Life
II: A History in Time
Early Times: A Slow Awakening of Interest
The Eighteenth Century: Enchanted Aurelians
Victorian Times: Men with Nets
Pins, Poisons and Field Guides
The Twentieth Century: Conservation, Citizen Science, New Wonders
The Mindful Present: Seeing and Being
III: A History in the Mind
The Parallel History: Dreams, Art, Literature, Music and Obsession
Meanings and Lessons
IV: Into Butterfly Country
Where Are the Butterflies?
Practicalities
Questions and Answers
The Butterflies, and Where (and When) to Find Them
About the author
Nigel Andrew was educated at the University of Cambridge, after which he spent some years as a reference librarian, while also working as a critic and a feature writer for publications including the Times, Listener, Sunday Times, and Guardian/Observer. He then joined the staff of Radio Times before moving on to a full-time position at the Daily Mail. He now concentrates on his blog (Nigeness: A Hedonic Resource) and contributes to Literary Review and Slightly Foxed. His book, The Mother of Beauty: On the Golden Age of English Church Monuments, and Other Matters of Life and Death (2019) was described as “a wonderful book in every way, perfect for anyone interested in churches, in the lost corners of England, or in meditating on mortality.”
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