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The Beauty in the Beast: Britain's Favourite Creatures and the People Who Love Them [Hardcover]

Hugh Warwick
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Book Description

26 April 2012
The Beauty in the Beast is a delightful portrait of some of the UK's best-loved wild animals and birds and the colourful enthusiasts who champion their causes. Meet the water vole-woman from Shropshire, the owl-man from Somerset and Gordon, the dancing toad-fancier. These and many other fabulously engaging characters carry a deep knowledge of their chosen species within a distinctly quirky shell. Other animals making an appearance include otters, bats, dolphins, dragonflies, foxes and adders. Hugh Warwick, animal enthusiast and hedgehog fanatic, writes a series of affectionate and lively homages to the animals of the British Isles, composed of fieldwork and interviews with the people who love and conserve them.

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The Beauty in the Beast: Britain's Favourite Creatures and the People Who Love Them + A Prickly Affair: The Charm of the Hedgehog
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (26 April 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0857203959
  • ISBN-13: 978-0857203953
  • Product Dimensions: 14.7 x 22.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 97,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Product Description

Review

'A delightful, funny and enlightening read. I can't think of a more enjoyable way to be reminded that we don't need to travel the world to find amazing animals: the exotic and the surprising are right here on our doorsteps' --Gavin Pretor-Pinney, author of 'The Cloudspotter's Guide'

That s typical of Hugh Warwick s lovely, easy, humorous style. His book works on so many levels: as a portrait of British eccentricity, as an informal, highly selective guide to our native fauna, and quietly but angrily, as a polemic on the destruction of habitat and on the terrible mess we have made of our countryside. --Daily Mail

A few years ago, Hugh Warwick achieved a modest success with 'A Prickly Affair', a charming if slightly batty book about hedgehogs and people who like hedgehogs. With 'The Beauty in the Beast', he expands this basic idea to take on 15 wild creatures and their experts people who have taken 'one or two steps outside the bounds of what most people consider normal'. He hopes they will convince him 'of the beauty locked away within their chosen beasts , whether bats or dolphins' --The Independent

About the Author

Hugh Warwick is an environmental writer and photographer whose work has appeared across print media from BBC Wildlife and New Scientist to the Daily Telegraph - for whom he was unofficially hedgehog correspondent for a while - to radio documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and his appearance as the 'Eco-Worrier' on Fred McAuley's Radio Scotland show. He was also the field producer on Robert Greenwald's film 'Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price'. Hugh has studied hedgehogs, off and on, for over 20 years, and has most recently been responsible for stopping the great hedgehog massacre of Uist in the Outer Hebrides.

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Enthralling 5 Dec 2012
By Ms
Format:Hardcover
This is an enthralling read. In each chapter Warwick explores a different British species and introduces us to a particular enthusiast who has dedicated their life's work to preserving it. What makes 'The Beauty in the Beast' so compelling is the charming, sometimes laugh-out-loud narration. Here the author is describing a bat's face: "There is a very small space between cute and ridiculous, and somehow this bat managed to occupy it with confidence."

As well as being highly entertained we learn a huge amount of fascinating facts on each animal. Warwick explains that the gorgeous fur of long-eared bats is velvet to the touch, and that they purr when stroked. We learn that because of their bright, gem-like eyes, people believed that toads had a jewel embedded in their brain. We learn that otter poo, as well as being full of fish bones, smells like perfume.

I couldn't put the book down. Warwick's delightful enthusiasm not only for the animal experts but also their beloved species is infectious: "I suffer with a surfeit of empathy for both nature and humanity," he admits towards the end of the book. "What I have learned.." he concludes, "is that by applying ourselves to just one aspect of the beautiful and alarmingly fragile diversity of the natural world, we can learn to love not just a single species, but the entire web of life that sustains it and us."

As with all of the best comedy, there are some deeply touching and resonantly serious moments. Warwick also has a warning: "Seeing more deeply and falling in love both come with risks. The pain we experience as a result can be as immense as the pleasure. 'The stabbing pain of love's awakening' to quote Mahler's 'Song of the Earth' , is joined with the fear of loss."

Having read this book I wanted to shout with joy. It's a map showing us the way to come home to the things we love, and in this time of ecological crisis a call to action. We all need a species to love, be it ant, adder, beaver or bat: "Let us all take the risk of becoming attached to something out there," Warwick ends: "See deeply, open up your senses, become aware of the interconnectedness of life, and risk falling in love."

From the start Warwick set himself the task of finding a favourite from amongst his list of encounters. I won't give away which species Warwick chooses for his new tattoo at the end, but when the decision finally comes it is unexpected and moving.

I recommend this to anyone who loves animals. Buy it for all your friends, it will make a superb, heart-lifting gift.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Entertaining, informative and thought-provoking in equal measure, this is a nice piece of work about the fauna of the British isles. Gives a good balance between things you never knew about particular animals, and a nuanced wake-up call about the predicament of many eco-systems which support and are supported by said beasts.
Having said that in many ways it's a book about people - there's lots of quirky humour about the characters who get obsessed with specific animals, often obscure ones (and the author isn't afraid to poke fun at his own hedgehog-fixation / midlife crisis survival strategies.) Good use of a tenner, in my view.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars nature on your doorstep 3 Aug 2012
Format:Hardcover
Brings Britain's wildlife to life with intelligence, wit, and style. A great read - you'll be looking at nature in new ways.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Ecology has never been so funny
An endearing and comically thrilling page turner, full of eccentric anecdotes about the iconic and not-so-iconic creatures of Britain. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Devonly
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!!
Animals and eccentrics abound in this book and it makes you glad to be British once more!!! Its all in here from Water voles to foxes to mad badger fanatics and off with the toad... Read more
Published 2 months ago by wendy
5.0 out of 5 stars A must for wildlife lovers
I haven't read all the book yet, as I like to read a chapter at a time because they are all self-contained ie: each one about a different animal. Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. J. Wilcox
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
A super book if you are interested in wildlife.
Got it for Water voles and Hedgehogs, but the others are also interesting.
Published 3 months ago by WrexTheDragon
5.0 out of 5 stars A high-spirited, multifaceted book.
I grew up in the deep countryside, surrounded by pure, untouched nature, insects and animals of all kinds. Read more
Published 7 months ago by E J Preghenella
5.0 out of 5 stars The Beauty in The Beast
I am finding that in reading the book I am learning a lot about people with a love of wildlife and also a lot about the wildlife itself and conservation issues. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Els
4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous, wise and inspiring
Following on from 'A Prickly Affair', 'The Beauty in the Beast' is a great example of nature writing. Read more
Published 9 months ago by wildgirl
4.0 out of 5 stars Hugh Warwick Returns for More Animal Madness
This is a delightful follow-up to A Prickly Affair: My Life with Hedgehogs, in which the biophilic eccentric, Hugh Warwick, seeks out fifteen advocates for British wildlife species... Read more
Published 10 months ago by C. Whalen
5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely on so many levels
So many ways to enjoy this book. Dip in. Read cover to cover. Choose your favourite animal first. Go back for reminders and repeat pleasure. Read more
Published 11 months ago by A flash of pink and green
5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous book about eccentric animal lovers
"The Beauty in the Beast" by Hugh Warwick (who I admit that I know) is a gorgeous book. I've already given away two copies as birthday presents hoping to inspire my friends to get... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Eco bunny
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