The Dragonflies of Essex by Ted Benton & John Dobson. Xii + 228pp. Published by
The Essex Field Club in association with Lopinga Books. ISBN 10:0-905637-18-6
Hardback. £20.00 including postage. Book orders and cheques to John Dobson, 158
Main Rd, Danbury, Essex CM3 4DT or contact johndobson@mammals.fsnet.co.uk
Nineteen years have passed since Ted Benton produced the first Dragonflies of Essex,
as good as it was this volume far surpasses it in scope and production. A hard backed
washable and illustrated cover conceals 228 pages with numerous colour photographs
and distribution maps.
A chapter on biology and conservation is followed by a very useful illustrated guide to
many of the best Essex sites for Dragonflies. The main body of the book, the species
accounts includes sections on identification, flight period, habits, distribution and
conservation. Excellentphotographs of each species are included within the accounts as
well as an Essex distribution map of each species. Early records are also discussed at
the conclusion of each account. Chapter four is devoted to a history of dragonfly recording
in Essex, dealing with many notable entomologists from Victorian times until the present
day. There are appendices on former Essex species, possible future arrivals and a couple
of rare species as well as a plant list. An extensive bibliography is included and the
whole is fully indexed. All in all a first class book essential for all Essex field naturalists
as well as dragonfly specialists. It is well bound and produced on quality paper. Place
your order today.
Del Smith
The Birds of Essex by Simon Wood
You may think that there is already a plethora of books about every aspect of birds and
bird watching and that there can be no need for more, but glance through the pages of
this huge and beautiful volume and you will, I am sure, change your mind, especially if
your interests are centred on our county of Essex.
The author, a past vice-chairman of the Essex Birdwatching Society, on whose behalf
the book was produced, together with his co-contributors, have compiled a most
comprehensive picture of birdlife in the county. There are introductory chapters on the
ecology of the county and its varied habitats, its ornithological history, its museums, its
fossil birds and archaeological remains and on the annual Wetland Bird Survey, but it is
the systematic list of the birds of Essex that leaves one lost in admiration for the mass of
statistical information that has been recorded and analysed; a task which has taken the
author nine years to complete.
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 55, January 2008