Torben Larsen, master story teller

I have just finished reading Hazards of Butterfly Collecting. We were privileged to hear Torben Larsen give a talk recently at Sussex Butterfly Conservation's AGM. His subject was Butterfly diversity and conservation in tropical countries. This fascinating man has led a charmed and exciting existence travelling to some of the world's most exotic places when it was still safe to do so and some of the forests still existed. These short stories were originally published in The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation and cover Torben's adventures from the 1960s through to around 2000. He has a good sense of humour and is a great story teller. If you enjoy reading Gerald Durrell, James Herriot and David Attenborough then I am sure you will enjoy this volume. It is still available from a few sellers. I got mine from Amazon (<£15).

Ken and I crept out of the house while lunch preparations were in process today. We ended up at The Sportsman at Redmires. A wonderful welcome from the landlord, a lovely pub and as we were in at early doors we got seats with a fabulous view. Timothy Taylor Landlord bitter was excellent too. We were back in time for lunch with guests Kathryn and Jennifer.

This is Scooter and she lives in the guest room we are occupying. She looks innocent enough but if your toes leave the protection of the duvet during the night she delights in sharpening her claws on them. She also makes an infernal racket using the cat flap in the the room in repeated, successful attempts to wake us up.