The Butterfly Summer: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE GARDEN OF LOST AND FOUND and THE WILDFLOWERS

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Many of the best butterfly poems focus on the carefree and joyous nature of the insect, and the Welsh poet W. H. Davies (1871-1940) offers another example of this association, in a poem titled, fittingly enough, ‘The Example’. The fine weather did cause many butterflies to emerge a week or two earlier than normal and so the Big Butterfly Count – which starts in the third week of July – missed the peak emergence of some common midsummer species, such as the meadow brown and marbled white.

The gatekeeper, a butterfly of country hedgerows and grass verges, was the most common butterfly with 142,618 counted, up 58.6% on summer 2021, which was its second worst Big Butterfly Count result. Dr Richard Fox concluded: “Nearly 137,000 Big Butterfly Counts were recorded this summer and if every single person who helped with the Count creates a Wild Space, we can build a UK-wide network of spaces for butterflies to feed, breed and shelter. By creating a Wild Space everyone can make a difference and help butterflies and moths thrive.” Following last summer’s heatwave and drought, scientists at Butterfly Conservation called on the public to help them understand the effect the extreme weather had on the UK’s butterflies. People responded in their thousands, with almost 95,000 citizen scientists taking part in this year’s Big Butterfly Count, conducting 136,719 15-minute Counts in gardens, parks, school grounds and the countryside. One example is the wood white, a delicate butterfly found in woodlands in a few parts of southern England and the West Midlands, where it can be seen fluttering along woodland rides and the sheltered edges of clearings. Although higher temperatures should in theory allow the wood white to shift its range northwards, its inability to cross large swathes of unsuitable habitat means that it is unable to take advantage of a warming world.Overall, participants of the Big Butterfly Count enjoyed seeing more butterflies this year than in the previous four summers. In total, over 1.5 million butterflies and day-flying moths were recorded from 14 July - 6 August. After an all-time low in 2022 of just nine individual butterflies spotted per Count, this year saw an increase to 12 butterflies recorded on average per Count. The recipe: take a single child grown up with a depressed mother, give her an eccentric, entomologyst - and missing - father whose death was never solved, add an ex marriage, a boring work and mix together. During cooking time spice it up with an overly caring neighbour, a mysterious house and its macabre past, the sudden death - by creepy, unlikely to happen accident - of ex-husband, with whom the protagonist was about to rekindle romance and have a child, then scoop everything out of the pan and add other ingredients. A mess, that is. Grasslands are an incredibly valuable habitat for many of the UK’s moths and butterflies. Semi-natural grassland, pasture, arable land, urban parkland and any areas with rough unmanaged grass will all support a variety of butterfly species. In the height of summer these areas can be teeming with Skippers, Common Blues, Ringlets and Meadow Browns. Be sure to inspect any flowering plants (particularly thistles and knapweeds) as these can act as vital nectaring points for many butterflies. Pay close attention for the fast and subtle movements of smaller species as these can often disappear against such a busy environment. A prime example of this is the Small Copper which is notoriously hard to spot due to its minute size, fast flight and discrete colouration (when its wings are closed). LOOK OUT FOR: Here’s a sad poem which draws on the parallel between a young girl and a butterfly developing from its chrysalis. What makes this one special is the brooding atmosphere of secrets waiting to be discovered, which builds like a gathering summer storm' - Books for Keeps

This book tells the story of Nina Parr and especially the young woman discovering part of her family she has never known. What happened in the past and why is it all connected to Keepsake a mysterious house in Cornwall?! UT all starts when Nina meets a woman she doesn’t know in the library. That woman knows her and she wants Nina to discover her family’s legacy. Nina never knew her dad George Parr, who died on a jungle expedition. In addition to that she is divorced already, married at 19 and is now still friends with Sebastian. But drought is a major problem as plants wither and die, meaning female butterflies may struggle to find anywhere to lay their eggs, or there is not enough food for the caterpillars when they hatch.Native wild flowers are often considered to be more suitable than non-native ones, but the real key is making sure there are nectar-rich flowers in bloom from April through to October Prof Tom Brereton of Butterfly Conservation said: “There were not as many butterflies around as we might have expected given the fabulous weather over much of the butterfly season, and overall, 2018 ranked as barely better than average. The most-seen species this year was the Red Admiral, with 248,077 recorded - an increase of 338% on last year’s Count and the first time the species, which is increasing in the UK as a result of climate change, has taken the top-spot. Essentially a story about a dysfunctional family and secrets and obligations that pass from female generation to generation binding them all together for an eternity. It starts at the end really where the present day Nina meets an old woman in the London Library where she has been given life membership by her father before he went away when she was a child and who she never sees again believing him to be dead. This chance meeting (or perhaps it wasn't chance) starts her on a journey of discovery about her life, lineage and inheritance of Keepsake and the butterflies.