Life in the Undergrowth by David Attenborough is a brilliant read about different kinds of insects and how they have evolved to survive. It is easy to forget about them, but after reading this book I find insects hard to ignore.

My favourite section in the book is the part on super societies such as ants and termites. The sheer scale of these socities and the order in which they are kept is fascinating.

The TV series that runs parallel to the book is also worth watching.

I haven't seen the series but I also have the book and I would also recommend it. I have read it three times now tro try and remember more of the information in it, because it is all so interesting.

David Attenborough has always been one of my wildlife heroes, this book lives up to his very high standards.

I believe you can buy the DVD of the series, if you're an Attenborough fan it's a much watch!

Haven't read the book but I did catch glimpses of the series when it was on. It really did open my mind about insects, even if I am still creeped out by them. I would recommend the DVD, it certainly will help you appreciate insects.

It does make you realise how complex seemingly insigificant insects are, and how far they've come. One of my favourite quotes from the book is that if all mammals disappeared tommorrow the insects would carry on regardless, but if all the insects were to suddenly disappear no other life could survive.

Yes, that's the big worry about the bees disappearing...if the animals which pollinate food crops disappear, how will humans survive?

Kingfisher

And who would provide us with honey and silk if all the insects disappeared?

We would have to find out a way of pollinating plants ourselves, which would be a lot of work. Luckily it is hypothetical with most insects, although the bees are having a rough time this year.

I bought the book and it is a brilliant read, I recommend it to anyone. It is really interesting to see how the different kinds of insects have evolved, and how in some cases very complex defence mechanisms have evolved the same but completely separately.

I really enjoyed the super societies sections, it has always amazed me how ants and bees can work together seemingly as one organism and I enjoyed learning more about how they do it.

Waterstones have been running lots of cheep offers on the David Attenborough DVDs. I have picked up a couple recently as I love all of them.

If you haven't read or heard it his Zoo quest for a Dragon is a great read / listen (I am a big fan of audio books) in which he describes his first forays into Television and the first TV animal collecting and filming expeditions.

Very different from the approach to wildlife we now have.

Ooo thanks for letting us know, I'll have to get in there and pick some up. Which ones did you get?

I picked up; Life of Mamals, Life on Earth and Trials of Life all of which were around the £14.99 mark if my memory serves me right whereas they are still in the £27 area on the BBC web site.

I think they were promoting them alongside that recent series of wildlife progs with the 'celebs' going off to see the endangered species around the world with Alan Titmarsh hosting it - can't for the life of me remember what the series was called.

Thinking about it, it was Borders not Waterstones.

I think it was called Saving Planet Earth, I saw a few of the programs and thought they were pretty good if not brilliant.

We don't have a local Borders but I usually find Waterstones to be quite expensive. There is a Sussex book shop near us which is much cheaper, although there is less choice and I'm not sure they sell DVD's.

As I work away alot and love books I tend to frequent book shops such as Waterstones and Borders quite a lot when I am working in major cities, plus the coffee shops in them is quite an incentive. Can't beat a new book and a tall Latte and maybe a pastry

I do preffer to purchase from my local little bookshop though and even though they don't always have waht I want they will normally order it in for me and then when I pick it up it will be wrapped up in paper which kind of makes it seem a nicer experience.

The local little bookshop also has the advantage that they look after you. One of the last books I ordered from them ended up being a signed copy, which I hadn't asked for but they had sourced for me a I was a regular customer.

Sometimes they end up being more expensive. I recently bought a number of the Arthur Mee 'Kings England' series of books written in the 1930's looking at english towns and history by county (A wonderful series of books if you like that kind of thing). Although more expensive from them I would rather pay the extra and have that local book shop there than save money and at some point the book shop going out of business to the big boys. The great thing about the Arthur Mee books I got were although they were brand new in terms of me being the first owner their published dates were all in the late 80's and early 90's and they had obviously been sitting on a warehouse shelf for a long time, already yellowed page edges but perfect in every other way. Seemed strange but curiously nice having new books that were already 20 years old!