Be a stickler to join the country club

And there, finally, she rested. A few weeks ago, I’d been traipsing round the local wood looking for purple emperors. I knew they lurked there, but I’d never seen one. As usual, there was a decent show of silver-washed fritillaries, commas and even a small squadron of white admirals, but no purple emperor. It was the time of the Great Heat Wave and the terriers were hot, tired of rabbiting, wanting their breakfast and demanding to go home. I was about to leave when a purple emperor, gloriously unmistakable, pitched on to some bramble flowers.

It was a female, which isn’t actually purple, but that didn’t matter. It was an, I’d seen it and all