May 2023 – Coles Book Club
Thursday 18th May 2023 @ 7pm
Seirian Sumner – “Endless Forms”
The Coles Book Club – an opportunity to read the book and then join us to meet the author Seirian Sumner for an evening of chat and, of course, a glass of wine, at Coles with your fellow readers. The book you buy from Coles becomes your ticket for the evening – click on the book cover below to buy your book online and we’ll post it to you, or call in at the Shop and pick up a copy.
There may be no insect with a worse reputation than the wasp, and none guarding so many undiscovered wonders. Where bees and ants have long been the darlings of the insect world, wasps are much older, more intelligent, and more diverse. They are the bee’s evolutionary ancestors – flying 100 million years earlier – and today they are just as essential for the survival of our environment. The closer you look at these spurned, winged insects – both custodians and bouncers of our planet – the more you see.
For readers of Entangled Life, Other Minds and The Gospel of Eels, this is a book to upturn your expectations about one overlooked insect and the wider architecture of our natural world.
About the Author: Professor Seirian Sumner is a Professor of Behavioural Ecology at University College London, where she studies the ecology and evolution of social insects. She has published over 70 papers in scientific journals, and has received numerous awards for her work, including a L’Oréal for Women in Science Award, a Points of Light Award from the UK Prime Minister, and a Silver Medal from the Zoological Society of London. She is a Fellow and Trustee of the Royal Entomological Society and co-founder of the citizen science initiative Big Wasp Survey. Endless Forms is her debut work of non-fiction for a general audience. She lives in Oxfordshire, England with her husband and three children.
