Natural Selection

One of the occasional functions of this now very occasional blog is to get reviews of new nature books I’ve read to people who might be interested. About a month ago The Observer trailed ‘The Butterfly Season’ by interviewing Lea Korsgaard about her quest to see all Denmark’s breeding butterflies in a calendar year. I decided I had to read this book.

I love ‘big year’ books where people set out to see lots of different wildlife in twelve months. I’ve mainly read birding ones, so the fact that this was covering butterflies gave a different perspective, as did the fact the author was a female Danish journalist. In the interview Korsgaard was clearly eloquent and knowledgeable.

A spoiler alert in the interview was that Korsgaard doesn’t achieve her quest. A couple of species mid season evaded her, and with the short flying period in some cases there’s no coming back from that. As with all good writing in this ilk it balances the thrill of the chase and despair of ‘dipping’ with an awareness of the underlying frivolity / indulgence of the exercise.

But the book is also much more than this. It’s a broad assessment of what constitutes human progress, and how this has contributed to the massive declines in butterflies and other creatures in Denmark and elsewhere. It’s also a tender portrait of the realities of family life, particularly where this rubs against a consuming project or passion.

At the end of each chapter covering a month (or in the peak season a couple of weeks) there are vignettes by the author of the new species since in that timeframe. These wouldn’t win any awards, but they are quite charming and you can see what species they represent. Where the sexes differ only one of them is illustrated.

In summary this is a tremendous piece of writing. I would baulk at saying ‘nature writing’ as it’s a lot more wide-ranging than that, and because the fact it’s a journalist on a project that shines through. Special mention must go to the translator Sherylin Nicolette Hellberg as but for the subject matter you’d never guess that this hadn’t been written in English originally.