I have long had a love of Natural History from when I was a child and had my first book written by Reg Harris which I pored over endlessly. I still have it and it is held together with an elastic band it is so shredded.

That seed - the love of insects, trees, fossils, minerals and all that the natural world had to offer has stayed with me to this day some 60 years later. I still can't resist collecting an agate on the beach or picking up an ammonite. The excitement I feel watching dragonflies buzz around or adders warming in the morning sun is still as strong as ever. The unusual and the interesting in the natural world never ceases to attract my attention and often stir a need to get my camera out.

I wonder whether the need to 'collect' was stirred up by this book although now I collect with camera and lens rather than physically as it was when I was a child.