The Complete Beekeeper, by Gabriel Wilson OSB (264pp, Gracewing, £20)
This is an impossibly lovely book, written by a Benedictine monk and beekeeper. We learn early on that these two callings are symbiotic. Many spiritual writers have written on the harmony of the hive and the moral lessons to be drawn from bees. Monks and bees live in community. And from everything Gabriel Wilson writes – in delicious, sensuous prose – it is clear that working with bees entails the active and contemplative virtues.
