Mike Fraser

For more information about 'The Smallest Kingdom' please visit: www.thesmallestkingdom.co.uk

'The Smallest Kingdom' is a lively and informative account of the botanical exploration of South Africa's Cape Floral Kingdom. This is a region of exceptional floral richness and is the ancestral home of many of today's most popular garden plants. The book is beautifully illustrated with over 100 botanical paintings by Liz Fraser, together with numerous historical images and contemporary photographs. It will appeal to gardeners, botanists, historians, botanical artists, naturalists, and visitors to the Cape.

Mike Fraser is an ecologist and writer. He is a graduate of Stirling University, Scotland, and the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. 'The Smallest Kingdom' is his third book on the natural history of the Cape. He is married to the artist Liz Fraser. They were awarded the prestigious Marloth Medal of the Botanical Society of South Africa for promoting the conservation of the Cape's unique fynbos vegetation through their first two books 'A Fynbos Year' and 'Between Two Shores' (David Philip Publishers/New Africa Books).

Mike is a conservation officer with the RSPB. He is also a member of the advisory panel of 'Birdwatch', the UK's top birding magazine. He enjoys birding and bird ringing (banding), gardening, the history of scientific exploration, collecting natural-history books, and islands - his favourite being Tristan da Cunha, where the Upland Inaccessible Bunting Nesospiza acunhae fraseri, is named after him.

Mike and Liz lived at the Cape for 12 years. They now live in the Scottish Borders but have yet to acclimatise.