The Butterfly Summer: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE GARDEN OF LOST AND FOUND and THE WILDFLOWERS

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Overall, participants of the Big Butterfly Count enjoyed seeing more butterflies this year than in the previous four summers. In total, over 1.5 million butterflies and day-flying moths were recorded from 14 July - 6 August. After an all-time low in 2022 of just nine individual butterflies spotted per Count, this year saw an increase to 12 butterflies recorded on average per Count. The story hinges around the inheritance but also about wrongs that were done and sacrifices made to right those wrongs to atone for mistakes made generations before the present Nina was born. You can feel the force of those generations reaching out across time which makes this a compelling read.

It tool me a few days to get into The Butterfly Summer but once I did I enjoyed it. I liked that Nina and Teddy’s stories were told in between the other so it wasn’t all told at once and left you wanting more while you learned more about one of the women. And even though I figured out Teddy’s secret it didn’t make me like the story any less. The large blue, which was hastened to extinction by the dry summer of 1976, enjoyed its best year since being reintroduced in 1983 via caterpillars from Sweden, increasing by 58% on 2017. There are more large blues now flying in Britain than any other country. There were so many disturbing things that happened in the Parr history. I don’t understand how Keepsake affected the Parr women or what some of them did there. I especially don’t understand why they would willingly do that to themselves.. In this article we have compiled a short guide on which butterflies you are likely to see outside this spring/summer, as well as some tips on the features by which you can distinguish certain species. Gardens Prof Tom Brereton of Butterfly Conservation said: “There were not as many butterflies around as we might have expected given the fabulous weather over much of the butterfly season, and overall, 2018 ranked as barely better than average.Dr Richard Fox, head of science for Butterfly Conservation, said: “In general, warm, sunny weather is good for butterflies as they can be active, finding food, mating and laying eggs. The drought of 1976 proved disastrous for many species, but the more recent drought in 2018 did not appear to have the negative impact that butterfly scientists feared it might. We would also expect that, as average spring and summer temperatures continue to rise, new butterfly species will cross the Channel, adding to our paltry total of fewer than 60 species (compared with almost 500 in Europe as a whole). Nina grew up not knowing much about her father’s side of the family. He died when she was six months old. When things about her family are revealed out of the blue Nina finds herself digging for clues, determined to understand what’s going on.

At university I read Classical Studies, which is a great way of finding out that the world doesn't change much and people make the same mistakes but it's interesting to look at why. I was at Bristol, and i loved the city, making new friends, being a new person. Other mysteries begin to crop up from this moment forth. Nina hears of a woman named Teddy who she apparently looks like, and learns that the mansion from her favourite childhood book is a real place. But how are these things connected to Nina’s father? But drought is a major problem as plants wither and die, meaning female butterflies may struggle to find anywhere to lay their eggs, or there is not enough food for the caterpillars when they hatch. Harriet Evans then takes us through several generations of the Parr family and expertly intertwines these characters together even though all the female members of the family were quite different their stories were authentic and characters believable. After meeting the present day Nina we are introduced to her ancestor Lady Nina who has a daughter Charlotte the product of a union between Nina and King Charles II when he was sheltering from the Roundheads he hid at Keepsake. He was enchanted with the butterfly garden that Nina had cultivated. When he hears he has a daughter he sends Nina a diamond brooch shaped like a butterfly which Charlotte wears and gives to her own daughter before she dies. The King also decrees that Keepsake be given to his daughter Charlotte and every daughter born there. On the broach is inscribed 'What's loved is never lost'.It is the third year in a row that the count has recorded its lowest-ever average abundance, a worrying sign that once-common flying insects are continuing to disappear from Britain. But the dry weather affected caterpillars that feed on grasses that withered and died prematurely in the hot, dry conditions. The gatekeeper, small skipper and Essex skipper all fell by more than 20% on the previous year. Despite concerns about the longer-term impact of the drought, 2022 was a good year for rare species including the purple emperor, large blue, chequered skipper and dark-green fritillary, all of which have been the focus of targeted conservation work in recent years. I liked that there were a lot of unforeseen moments and twists in the story. It was interesting to get to know all these different generations of Parr women and I really liked the inheritance fact of the story.

The book had been moving along at a slow enough pace for me as there was a huge amount of setting up to do and then all of a sudden an event turned everything on its head and finally we got to the heart of the matter and I began to take more of a an interest in what was going on. Nina discovers there is a legacy, a heritage to which she has a right to as she is near to turning 26. Nina hears of the house Keepsake which is now rightfully hers, the question is does she really want it and all that it brings or is she happy to meander along in life a little bit lost and not quite happy with everything going on? Nina wasn’t a character that I especially warmed to, I felt she expected all the answers to be there right in front of her fairly straight forward and requiring no thought process. I wanted more of an element of discovery and uncovering the past on Nina’s part. It felt too dragged out in the present and bits of Nina’s so called journey went over my head. In my mind the story only got going when the past began to come to light. This is very different to what I’v read from Harriet before but it was a lovely surprise – a really unusual idea and I enjoyed getting to know all the women of the family. This is a really unusual book – haunting and poignant in turn and a real trail to find out the truth of the past. I admit I found the idea intriguing from the beginning – like how one butterfly flapping its wings can change things and how we over the years try to make things right, change the course of events and the things we do to keep family together. With butterflies emerging so early, many species could go on to have a second or third brood in the autumn. This is not necessarily a boon for some because it can create a “developmental trap” with the autumn butterflies’ offspring unable to cycle through egg and caterpillar stages so late in the year. According to Oates, the demise of the wall brown butterfly is linked to a late brood in which the species’ offspring die off as winter sets in. One piece of good news was the widespread appearance this summer of a day-flying moth, the Jersey tiger, which appears to be thriving in the changing climate and breeds in gardens. Its numbers rose by 136.5%.

Like the sun glinting on a butterfly's wing, there's both light and darkness in Anne-Marie Conway's outstanding novel...[ Butterfly Summer] gets to the heart of childhood dilemmas whilst unravelling mysteries from the past. A terrific read for youngsters aged nine and over' - Lancashire Evening Post What makes this one special is the brooding atmosphere of secrets waiting to be discovered, which builds like a gathering summer storm' - Books for Keeps Although fluidly written, this book is not an easy read. At all times I had the impression of getting tangled in the scattered thoughts of the author, caught up in millions of tiny string thoughts inside a room full with more. Did I want to be there? No.