"As many readers will know, I have been rather busy these past few years. I have been pounding away at my magnum opus, Bugs Britannica, an examination of the wonderful ways in which we have woven invertebrate life into our own thoughts and expressions. Now the page proofs have at last arrived, where text and pictures meet for the first time. It all looks highly satisfactory, but, I ask myself, is the world ready for a book that deals not with buglife per se but with the effect of bugs on the workings of the human imagination? Are the British ready for bug jokes?"