A Slow Passion: Snails, My Garden and Me

Ruth Brooks,Mulcahy Conway Associates Ltd

ISBN 10: 1408826585 / ISBN 13: 9781408826584

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013

About this Item

A Slow Passion: Snails, My Garden and Me This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. .

Seller Inventory # 7719-9781408826584

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Slow Passion: Snails, My Garden and Me
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1408826585
• ISBN 13: 9781408826584
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

When BBC Radio 4's Material World programme announced a search for the UK's top amateur scientist, little did anyone expect that the winning experiment would comprise one of our humblest garden pests. Ruth Brooks posed this question: Do snails have a homing instinct? The nation was gripped by the unexpected thesis and by Ruth's online diaries, which catalogued her trials and tribulations as she got to grips with these slimy little gastropods. A Slow Passion is Ruth's story, with anecdotes and misadventures galore. What starts out as a ruthless vendetta against the snails that are decimating her hostas becomes a journey of discovery into the whys and wherefores of snail life. When Ruth dumps a group of the worst offending snails in a far-off wood, she decides to paint their shells with nail varnish, just to see what happens. And guess what, they come back home. This is the beginning of an obsession that sees the grandmother-turned-scientist prowling about and pouncing on the snails in her garden, sneaking off on night-time missions to repatriate bucketloads of painted snails, reading up on the sex-life of snails (which turns out to be unexpectedly romantic) and, eventually, sending off the application to a national competition for home science. With charming illustrations, A Slow Passion is a sweet, funny and surprising investigation into the hidden life of snails, which will change the way you look at the smaller (and slower) things in life.

About the Author

Ruth Brooks' career has been in education. For 35 years she worked as a home tutor, supporting challenging and disadvantaged children and enabling them to uncover their hidden talents. Her dormant interest in science only bloomed in her seventieth year. In 2010, inspired by a passion for gardening and ecology, she entered a talent search run by the BBC programme Material World, and was awarded the title BBC Amateur Scientist of the Year. She loves the countryside, walking by the sea and, most of all, playing with her grandchildren. She lives in Devon.