Read our interview with Penny Metal
- Cover: Paperback
- Pages: 236
- Illustrations: 600+ colour photos
- Publisher: Metalanguage Design
Warwick Gardens is an ordinary park in Peckham, south-east London. It's not a nature reserve and has nothing special to warrant it as such. But, after six years of photographing the insects, the author has unearthed some delights: regional rarities, species new to the country, and some astounding-looking insects, whether it be jewel wasps, camouflaged weevils, or thick-headed flies.
Peckham is being tidied up, revamped and rebranded. This book is a portrait of the insects who live in Warwick Gardens, a story of life in the bushes. Written with a wry look at the gentrification of Peckham through the compound eyes of our tiny neighbours, it reveals the comings and goings, the politics, the celebrations of birth, death and survival.
"With an eye for detail, composition, and something different, the author has produced a local celebration of insects that takes on national importance in its breadth, clarity and scientific observation. In Warwick Gardens in Peckham she has found an insect species new to Britain, many others with Red Data Book or Nationally Scarce status, and has produced an invertebrate species list worthy of a National Nature Reserve. Patience, diligence and concern for her local environment has created a scintillating book to which any naturalist should aspire"
– Richard Jones, entomologist and author