Sting like a bee

'Falling for a subject is more gradual than falling in love, though it soon gains something of the same irrational and fascinated compulsion. I did not imagine summers of pondering the sex lives of flowers, and I certainly didn't expect to be on the roof of an Upper West Side brownstone in Manhattan investigating illegal apiary. But that's what happens with a book. You think you're in charge, then suddenly the subject gallops off where it will.'

Hattie Ellison on writing her book Sweetness and Light: the Mysterious History of the Honey Bee