NHBS’s Top 10 bestsellers August 2021
We love looking back at our bestsellers from the month before and are very excited to share our Top 10 list, featuring the best of August.
This month, highlights include recent works such as Silent Earth and Collins Birds of the World, as well as several you may recognise from last month’s Top 10, such as All the Birds of the World and the consistently popular Britain’s Insects.
Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse | Dave Goulson
Hardback | August 2021
In top place this month is Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse, part love letter to the insect world, part elegy, and part rousing manifesto for a greener planet. Drawing on the latest ground-breaking research and a lifetime of study, Silent Earth reveals the shocking decline of insect populations that has taken place in recent decades, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Collins Birds of the World: All 10,711 Species Illustrated | Norman Arlott et al
Hardback | September 2021
Collins Birds of the World: All 10,711 Species Illustrated is the complete collection of the Collins Field Guide’s incredibly detailed, accurate and beautiful bird paintings brought together for the first time in one comprehensive volume. All 10,711 of the world’s bird species are covered – this is the ultimate reference book for birdwatchers and bird enthusiasts.
Read our interview with Norman Arlott.
Britain’s insects: A Field guide to the insects of Great Britain and Ireland | Paul D. brock
Flexibound | May 2021
Britain’s Insects is even more popular this month! This field guide is an innovative, up-to-date, carefully designed and beautifully illustrated field guide to Britain and Ireland’s 25 insect orders, concentrating on popular groups and species that can be identified in the field.
Featuring superb photographs of live insects, Britain’s Insects covers the key aspects of identification and provides information on status, distribution, seasonality, habitat, food plants and behaviour.
A Comprehensive Guide to Insects of Britain & Ireland | Paul D. Brock
Flexibound | October 2019
A Comprehensive Guide to Insects of Britain & Ireland has moved up from the 9th spot on last month’s list. It is a complete, photographic field guide to over 2,300 species of insects in Britain and Ireland – including beetles, flies, ants, bees and wasps. The clear photographs will assist in the identification of the majority of insects likely to be encountered.
This guide also contains concise text on behaviour, present-day conservation status and pointers on species of similar appearance. Serious naturalists will welcome notes on areas to look for rarities and further resources that provide additional information on particular insect groups.
British Craneflies | Alan Stubbs
Hardback | July 2021
British Craneflies is a guide to the identification and natural history of 250 species in six families of cranefly. It describes the distribution and habitat of each one, with 128 pages of identification keys illustrated with thumbnail drawings and colour plates showing markings and venation of the wings of 180 species. This guide also contains photograph examples of some distinctive and some common craneflies, illustrations of the male genitalia for all species of Tipulidae and for most genera of other families, and introductory chapters including a full account of the enemies of craneflies.
All the Birds of the World | Josep Del Hoyo
Hardback | August 2020
This all-encompassing new guide lists all the birds of the world, allowing readers to browse and compare Earth’s amazing avian diversity between the covers of one volume. All the Birds of the World presents over 11,524 species, accompanied by 11,558 distribution maps and 20,865 illustrations detailing sexual dimorphism, morphs and distinctive subspecies.
Britain’s Butterflies: A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland | David Newland et al.
Flexibound | August 2020
This photographic field guide to all of Britain’s butterflies returns in a fourth edition, produced in association with Butterfly Conservation. Britain’s Butterflies is a comprehensive and beautifully designed photographic guide, containing hundreds of stunning colour photographs and providing the latest information on every species ever recorded. It covers all 59 butterfly species that breed regularly, four former breeders, 10 rare migrants and one species of unknown status.
Plants and Habitats: An Introduction to Common Plants and Their Habitats in Britain and Ireland |Ben Averis
Paperback | June 2013
Plants and Habitats combines the species and habitat approaches to plants and vegetation. It is an identification guide to 700 of the most common, conspicuous or useful ecological indicator plant species that make up most of Britain and Ireland’s vegetation. It also contains a separate habitats section describing the flora, ecology and management of habitats. This illustrated guide aims to help people understand our vegetation at all scales, from individual plants to whole landscapes.
A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes | Dominic Price
Hardback | September 2021
A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes is another repeat occurrence from last month’s Top 10 and is a consistent bestseller for NHBS. This guide aims to simplify the identification of this fascinating group of plants, using characters that are both easy to spot in the field and simple to remember. Over 100 species are described, focusing on key features of both their genus and species.
Read our interview with Dominic Price.
Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland | Paul Waring Et al.
Paperback | November 2018
Still popular this month, the third edition of the Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland is a fully revised and updated version.
This field guide includes beautiful illustrations displaying key features to help with identification. It covers flight season, life cycle, larval foodplants, habitat and more, along with maps presenting distribution information.
The revised edition also contains an introduction explaining how the methods of identifying and recording moths have evolved over recent years.