Latest Reviews
A lovely review in The Friends Journal in April about the book and the following was great
“Reverence for the earth, and action to ensure a flourishing planet, require us to respect the details, the organisms that occupy Earth with us. For some of you, plants, birds, or the great assemblages of animals on the U.S. prairies or the Serengeti will capture your imagination and move you to the kind of active love that is so urgently needed. But near to home (indeed, within every home, too!) there exists an extravagantly diverse, fascinating, and fundamentally important crowd of organisms—bugs—whose welfare is bound up with yours. Action for bugs can be very local and is within everyone’s reach, but the little critters are part of the whole world system, and Hird’s book is an engaging invitation to see the world in a new way.”
BBC Wildlife magazine October 2021
Hackney Gazette and
Islington Gazette “As well as singing the praises of little-loved wasps, maggots, and slugs, Rebugging The Planet (Chelsea Green £12.99) is packed with suggestions for finding insects in schools, verges and gardens, starting with taking children on a minibeast treasure hunt.”
Modern Farmer in the US
6 September 2021 Yorkshire Byelines by Andy Brown “…So rebugging is a concept whose time has come. The entomologist and campaigner Vicki Hird, who is head of farming at Sustain, has a new book coming out this month that explores the importance of Rebugging the Planet. It ought to be a must read for anyone who cares about their environment or enjoys walking through the countryside….”
LOVE READING UK A wonderful review of #RebuggingthePlanet by @LoveReadinguk: “Imbued with infectious personal passion as it shares expert information and plenty of practical guidance, @vickihird’s Rebugging the Planet is a brilliant book for bug-lovers of all ages”🐝🕷️🐞:https://t.co/UuoxhlAZLi
September LoveReading4Kids “Imbued with infectious personal passion as it shares expert information and plenty of practical guidance, Vicki Hird’s Rebugging the Planet is a brilliant book for bug-lovers of all ages and, given bugs’ vital importance to the upkeep and well-being of Planet Earth…”
September 2021 Royal Entomological Society Review by Peter Smithers – “This is a heartfelt plea from Vicki Hird to change the way we interact with the natural world, but it is a plea with a difference, one that presents its arguments via the lens of globally declining invertebrate populations. It is a manifesto for a green revolution aimed at the layman, a tool kit to enable individuals to make changes to the way that they live, and offers advice on how to put pressure on various layers of society, from friends and neighbours to local politicians and national government, in order to bring about a greener, more diverse world.….”
September 2021 GreenSpririt.org by Marian Van Eyk McCain “this book is rich with them. Hird lists a whole range of things that individuals and groups can do about the problem. As she explains: Rebugging is looking at all the ways, small and large, to nurture complex communities of these tiny, vital players in almost all the natural and not-so-natural places on earth. It means conserving them where they are managing to hold on, and restoring them where they are needed as part of a rewilding movement. And it means putting bugs back into our everyday lives, our homes and where we play and work…..I found this an inspiring and informative book and I recommend it.”
29 August 2021 Sunday book review – by Mark Avery -Rebugging the Planet by Vicki Hird
5 August 2021 The Omnivore Scientist “Easily one of the best books with a call to action heart at its core for saving our invertebrate friends in a cohesive social and political manner….Her enthusiasm and love for insects right at the beginning of the book will make you pick up your trowel and work the soil in your home to reconnect with nature once again. The book’s powerful message is in the word “Rebugging” itself which resonates throughout the chapters.”
Praise
“This is a lovely little book that could and should have a big impact. The decline of insect life in the UK and globally is one of the biggest concerns of our biodiversity crisis. We often feel so helpless about nature loss, so it’s hugely inspiring to find out that there is something we can actually do about it. Let’s all get rebugging right away!”—Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, multi-award-winning writer and broadcaster
“A bold and educational call to action and call to arms in one of the most crucial challenges facing society – halting the dreadful destruction of the amazingly little animals we call invertebrates or bugs. Time to get rebugging!”—Matt Shardlow, author and chief executive of Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust
“Everyone should read Vicki’s delightful bug book! She’s been a committed environmentalist and campaigner for nature ever since the 1980s, when I first met her. Like me, she’s a Londoner, but unlike me, she’s realised that her lifelong fascination for nature in general and insects in particular can be explored in an urban setting. Her passion for bugs is palpable and wonderfully illuminated through individual bug stories, which makes this book totally accessible. Vicki has done a service to the planet and the insects we share it with.”—Patrick Holden, CBE organic farmer, and founding director and chief executive of the Sustainable Food Trust
“What a fantastic, timely and important book! For too long, our society has taken bugs for granted when in reality they represent the very foundations of our food system, our economy, our civilisation. With her well-researched but personable and highly readable writing style, Vicki Hird offers an engaging and hopeful narrative about what we can and must do to make insects matter, and reverse the appalling declines in insect populations that have taken place these last few years. In doing so, she doesn’t just stick with the easy stuff like what needs to happen in your garden or local park – much as she covers this brilliantly. She also tackles the need for system level change; in agriculture, in politics, in the economy, in culture, if we’re going to succeed in rebugging the planet – all while gaining fascinating insights from the remarkable world of insects.”—Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts
“Rebugging the Planet is a joyous and impassioned song to the insect life on which we all depend. Brimming with wisdom but accessibly written, it is a call to arms to avert Insectaggedon. Without bugs, we’re in deep trouble!”—Guy Shrubsole, environmental campaigner and author of Who Owns England?
“A passionate, accessible, and in-depth introduction to the wonderful world of ‘bugs’. Packed with eye-opening facts and leaving not a stone unturned in her efforts to understand and explain the causes of their decline, Vicki inspires each and every one of us to re-evaluate our relationship with these magnificent minibeasts. Whoever we are, whatever our circumstances, there is always more that we can do to help if we only knew how. This book provides us with the tools and advice we need to ‘rebug’ our gardens, our lives and our world.”—Brigit Strawbridge Howard, author of Dancing with Bees
“Hird’s joy in bug life is infectious and her knowledge encyclopaedic. I defy even the most bug-phobic reader not to finish Hird’s book without, if not sharing her love of them, at least joining in her admiration. Bugs are essential to a thriving natural world, and indeed to our own future on this planet, yet they’re under threat like never before. If you’ve ever asked what bugs have done for us, read this book – and then join the movement to protect them!”—Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP
“In 1987 E.O. Wilson told us that ‘bugs’ were the little things that run the world. We didn’t listen and instead have forced millions of species of these essential creatures to the brink of extinction. Just in time, Vicki Hird tells us how and why we need to change our cultural relationship with ‘bugs’ and reverse these disastrous declines. Despite the serious nature of this subject matter, Rebugging the Planet is a light-hearted and delightful read.”—Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope
“This book is a delightful exploration into the world of ‘bugs’ – broadly defined to include insects, spiders, centipedes, and even snails – replete with creative use of words like ‘rebug’, ‘rewild’, ‘insectageddon’, ‘invertosphere’, ‘entomophage’ (the practice of eating bugs) and ‘fog basking’ by the Namib beetle to obtain water. Full of colourful stories about specific novel species like the cockchafer, the hummingbird hawkmoth and money spiders, it is also a call to action to do everything we can to stop the modern assault on bugs. The author shows how so many aspects of modern life – chemical-based agriculture, EMFs, plastics and forever chemicals – are forcing many species into extinction, but she also warns that we will come to appreciate what bugs do for us best when we see the carnage left behind when they are gone.”—Stephanie Seneff, author of Toxic Legacy
Publishers Weekly—“Brimming with tips and tools, this [book] is sure to leave nature-lovers inspired.”