Saturday 20 September 2008

Spine-tingling

I've frequently mentioned my Moth Bible in this journal, and as the trapping season nears its end, I shall start turning to the book more nostalgically than practically, in the way that fellwalkers and climbers browse over guides beside their wintertime fires. If you want to do the same, here's the book's spine, for easy recognition among the amazing riches of today's big bookshops. I think it will be shelved like this. There aren't enough moth enthusiasts (yet) for it to get a Harry Potter-style display, or even have its full cover shown. Mind you, authors are always creeping into bookshops and moving their own books surreptitiously from spine to full-cover display. So let's do that with the noble trio of Waring, Townsend & Lewington. Meanwhile, here is a real-life version of the moth given the signal honour of decorating their book's spine. It's the Herald, and very handsome it is too, both in colouring and wings which valence like the roof of a rural railway halt. This one is heading down one of my eggbox cones much in the way I imagine a particle whips into the Large Hadron Collider. That's gone quiet, hasn't it? The media, eh...

No comments: