Snail

Description

Beginning with an overview of our relationship with snails, slugs and seasnails, he goes on to examine snail evolution; snail behavior and habitat; snails as food, medicine, and the source of useful chemicals and dyes; snail shells as collectible objects; and snails in literature, art, and popular culture. The author concludes with a plea for a reconsideration of the snail as a dignified, ancient creature that deserves our respect, rather than one to be squashed thoughtlessly underfoot after a shower of rain. Containing many surprising and quite beautiful illustrations, and written in an approachable, informal style, Snail will prove instructive to all who thought that this animal was simply a garden pest to be enthusiastically destroyed.

Peter Williams is Vice President of the Medical Defence Union. He lives in Oxford.

'there is more to the snail than meets the eye-on-a-stalk. From the use of marine-snail shells in antiquity and the discovery of the snail's suprisingly complex anatomy in 18th-century dissections, to the symbolism of monopods in painting and literature (they stand, or rather slime, for slowness as a "way of life"), this book exerts a hypnotic fascination.' - The Guardian '[an] enjoyable PR job for the mollusc' - The Independent 'In Peter Williams' Snail, we discover that human-mollusc interactions go far further back than allotments - all the way to some of the earliest forms of money and adornment. Admirably the book also forced me to reconsider my vigorous prejudice against the slimy, seedling-munching beasts. In fact, the opening paragraph is so striking that it alone won me over.' - BBC Wildlife magazine 'Snails seems an unpromising subject for a book; yet Peter Williams presents these much-maligned creatures in a sympathetic light. Many of his illustrations bear witness to the beauty of their shells, and the evolution, growth and geometry of these structures makes a fascinating story.' - International Zoo News