A scientist and an artist combine their perspectives in a tribute to one of Britain’s rarest and most beautiful animals - the Fen Raft Spider.

Its story is told largely in the context of Redgrave & Lopham Fen National Nature Reserve on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Only two other sites having been discovered, Redgrave & Lopham Fen is the most studied and has the most threatened of the British populations.

Helen (the scientist), over many years working on the spiders’ ecology and conservation, found that their elegance, maternal care and struggle for survival attracted public interest. This provided opportunities to highlight the plight of wetlands and their many species. Sheila (the artist) discovered the spiders while surfing the net. Inspired by the potential for extending her artwork beyond mere representation to encompass a cultural and scientific understanding of the subject, she contacted Helen. Five years later, this book was the fruit of their collaboration.

With a foreword by Mark Cocker.