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Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee
Did you know that Abraham Lincoln and Muhammad Ali both consumed bee pollen to boost energy, or that beekeepers in nineteenth-century Europe viewed their bees as part of the family? Or that after man, the honeybee, Apis mellifera, is the most studied creature on the planet? And that throughout history, honey has been highly valued by the ancient Egyptians (the first known beekeepers), the Greeks, and European monarchs, as well as Winnie the Pooh?
In Sweetness and Light , Hattie Ellis leads us into the hive, revealing the fascinating story of bees and honey from the Stone Age to the present, from Nepalese honey hunters to urban hives on the rooftops of New York City. Uncovering the secrets of the honeybee one by one, Ellis shows how this small insect, with a collective significance so much greater than its individual size, can carry us through past and present to tell us more about ourselves than any other living creature.
In Sweetness and Light , Hattie Ellis leads us into the hive, revealing the fascinating story of bees and honey from the Stone Age to the present, from Nepalese honey hunters to urban hives on the rooftops of New York City. Uncovering the secrets of the honeybee one by one, Ellis shows how this small insect, with a collective significance so much greater than its individual size, can carry us through past and present to tell us more about ourselves than any other living creature.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
February 12, 2012
Several years ago, I read a book called Robbing the Bees. At the time, I picked it up because I was short on other things to read, because I love honey, and honestly, just because the cover was awfully pretty. I loved that book, and I've been reading food history ever since. Sweetness and Light is not quite as good, but still a very enjoyable read.
Although Sweetness and Light touches on nearly every aspect of honeys and honeybees, it's really much more of a focus on the history of beekeeping. The topic itself is entirely fascinating to me, and in the historical sections, the book itself is very good. But once the time frame became more modern, the book got much more rushed, with a lot less detail. Those were the parts that were least interesting to me.
I still enjoyed this book, but I wouldn't make it my first choice for reading on honey.
Although Sweetness and Light touches on nearly every aspect of honeys and honeybees, it's really much more of a focus on the history of beekeeping. The topic itself is entirely fascinating to me, and in the historical sections, the book itself is very good. But once the time frame became more modern, the book got much more rushed, with a lot less detail. Those were the parts that were least interesting to me.
I still enjoyed this book, but I wouldn't make it my first choice for reading on honey.
January 20, 2009
My ethical issues with the consumption of animal products notwithstanding, this book is a rather haphazardly organized collection of history, musings and personal anecdote. It has a "boutique shop" feel; nothing very important to say, but inoffensive enough to slip by without much notice. Ellis has a few nice turns of phrase, but by and large, forgettable.
June 6, 2024
i learned a lot about bees, which was fun. however, and maybe this is because the book i read immediately before this was Babel, she talks about colonialism and indigenous people in the americas and aotearoa/new zealand in a Really Weird Way. she has a whole section on "the ways of african bushmen" that just quotes european anthropological studies from the 1950s and a lot of stuff about the first thanksgiving that is uhhh Not True. so that was very strange. otherwise, not exactly a scientific study but a fun little look at some fun little guys
April 14, 2020
It is a social history – one clear and light but no less delicious for that.
May 28, 2010
As an organic gardener, I am concerned with the health of the soil and the beneficial insects who pollinate crops and keep pests in check. “Colony Collapse Disorder”, the mysterious die-off of honeybee hive populations, has been in the news for the past few years. Who are these insects and how did they come to be so important? Hattie Ellis’ "Sweetness & Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee" promises to answer that question but does so only imperfectly.
She starts out well enough, tracing first the evolutionary history of the honeybee, and then its relationship to humans. I was surprised to learn that in those same caves with the prehistoric paintings of bison and horses, are prehistoric paintings of honeybees and the collection of wild honey. She goes on to describe the most recent speculations as to how honeybees moved from the wild to become part of the domestic landscape, the use of honey in ancient cuisines and then traces the historical arc of beekeeping from ancient times to modern day, including the introduction of the honeybee to North America by European colonists.
My problem with this wealth of information is Ms. Ellis’ Eurocentric focus. She might better have subtitled her book “The Mysterious History of the Honeybee in Europe, North America and New Zealand”, New Zealand having once been a British colony (Ms. Ellis is British). Other than a brief mention of Brazil in connection with killer bees and the Himalayas to illustrate her point that honeybees can withstand cold environments, she offers us no information on honeybees or beekeeping in Africa, Asia or South America.
I find it difficult to believe that Europeans were the only peoples to keep honeybees. Didn’t the Chinese invent just about everything? Why not beekeeping? And if wild honey is collected in the Himalayas by Nepalese, doesn’t it stand to reason that the more sophisticated civilizations on the Indian sub-continent would also have had a relationship of some kind with honey and honeybees?
"Sweetness & Light" is an excellent, but limited, history of honey and honeybees. It left me hungry for more information on these fascinating creatures and their relationships with their environment and humans.
She starts out well enough, tracing first the evolutionary history of the honeybee, and then its relationship to humans. I was surprised to learn that in those same caves with the prehistoric paintings of bison and horses, are prehistoric paintings of honeybees and the collection of wild honey. She goes on to describe the most recent speculations as to how honeybees moved from the wild to become part of the domestic landscape, the use of honey in ancient cuisines and then traces the historical arc of beekeeping from ancient times to modern day, including the introduction of the honeybee to North America by European colonists.
My problem with this wealth of information is Ms. Ellis’ Eurocentric focus. She might better have subtitled her book “The Mysterious History of the Honeybee in Europe, North America and New Zealand”, New Zealand having once been a British colony (Ms. Ellis is British). Other than a brief mention of Brazil in connection with killer bees and the Himalayas to illustrate her point that honeybees can withstand cold environments, she offers us no information on honeybees or beekeeping in Africa, Asia or South America.
I find it difficult to believe that Europeans were the only peoples to keep honeybees. Didn’t the Chinese invent just about everything? Why not beekeeping? And if wild honey is collected in the Himalayas by Nepalese, doesn’t it stand to reason that the more sophisticated civilizations on the Indian sub-continent would also have had a relationship of some kind with honey and honeybees?
"Sweetness & Light" is an excellent, but limited, history of honey and honeybees. It left me hungry for more information on these fascinating creatures and their relationships with their environment and humans.
January 23, 2014
The history of honey is tied in with the history of civilisation and religion. While I am sure that a book on the history of honey and bees would be absolutely fascinating this book is not that book. Instead it is a pile of random half thoughts compiled together with little concept of narration.
Basically this is a book of foreplay that never reaches sex is the foreplay is done by a dippy, tipsy, ugly aunt.
Basically this is a book of foreplay that never reaches sex is the foreplay is done by a dippy, tipsy, ugly aunt.
May 15, 2019
This book is very well-written and interesting, although somewhat limited in scope as its history is very focused on "The West" and very little time is spent on many Asian species of honeybee. Aside from this, however, I really enjoyed reading about the interactions between bees and humans at various times and places throughout history.
September 12, 2016
_Sweetness and Light_ by Hattie Ellis is a wonderful and enjoyable tour of the natural and human history of the honeybee.
The prologue showed Ellis tagging along with beekeepers harvesting honey from bees in the heather moors of England. I learned several things, such as that bees burrow in search of bare skin when they seek to defend a nest (important to make sure there is a not single stray stitch on a beekeeper's outfit), bees produce a banana-like odor in the air when they sting (attracting other bees), and that the quality and flavor of English honey has varied over time as changing agricultural practices and land uses have altered the types of flowers bees have available to visit.
The first chapter looked at basics of bee biology. Topics addressed include the division of labor in hives between forager bees and house bees and the roles and habits of drones and queens, how nectar is actually gathered and how it is transformed into honey, an introduction to some of the exotic types of honey in the world (both monofloral honeys produced from one flower, such as tree-of-heaven honey and mango honey, and multifloral honeys, produced from nectar gathered from multiple species, such as what may be found in an alpine meadow), the evolution of bees, and the tremendous variety of bees in the world (there are 22,000 species in the world, found from the tropics to the Arctic and from the Himalayas to sea level, a group that includes such odd family members as miner bees - one Brazilian species digs up to 16 feet down - and leaf-cutter bees and nine species of _Apis_, the honeybee, with the two most important in terms of honey production being the eastern honeybee, _Apis cerana_ and _Apis mellifera_, the "most successful bee of all time," the "superbee of planet earth").
The second chapter looked at wild honey gathering, both in the natural world (gorillas, chimpanzees, and bears all love honey) and with early man. Ellis looked at reasons why man might have first started to raid bees for not only their honey but also to eat their larva, ancient cave art depicting honey hunting, and how traditional societies such as the San or bushmen and the Mbuti pygmies gather honey.
The third chapter looked at beekeeping in ancient Egypt, which was surprisingly sophisticated early on with the Egyptians having constructed dried mud hives for their bees and may have practiced migratory beekeeping, keeping hives on boats in the Nile, following the crops that were currently in bloom.
Chapter four looked at the honeybee in ancient Greece and Rome, how bees were viewed in mythology, the writings of Virgil, Aristotle, and Varro on them (Varro in particular wrote of the medicinal properties of propolis or "bee-glue", a sticky dark substance that bees use to seal up their hives), and the advent of cire perdue or the "lost wax" method of casting statues which made use of malleable beeswax.
Chapter five looked at bees in medieval Europe, including the methods (and feudal legalities) of gathering wild honey, the advent of the skep, the domed straw hive that became a major symbol of traditional beekeeping, often placed in bee boles (a sheltered recess in a house or garden wall), the anguish caused by many because of the fact for centuries to come in order to harvest honey one had to kill the hive, the world of mead production and consumption, and the often greater role bees played not in producing honey but in producing beeswax for candles.
Chapter six looked at the foundations of modern science as it was applied to the world of honeybees, including the use of observation hives, microscopes, the first detailed anatomical studies of bees, and the first attempts to solve the problem of collecting honey without killing bees (primitive versions of the wooden box "supers" used by beekeepers today). Also the importance of the honeybee as a political symbol was examined as well.
Chapter seven examined the spread of bees by Europeans to the North America, Australia, and New Zealand, new methods developed by the colonists to track down wild honey supplies, and even the important symbolism of the honeybee to the Mormons.
The eight chapter looked at folklore about bees, including such charming traditions as that hives must be traded or bartered for, never bought and the old country tradition of "telling the bees" and later 19th and 20th century advances in bee science, particularly of one Lorenzo Langstroth (the "father of modern beekeeping") who built the prototype of the modern beekeeper's hive when he discovered the concept of bee space, the amount of room that could be left open around bee combs to allow bees to move, combs to be easily extracted, but not so large as to lead bees to instinctively fill in. The author also discussed other bee-related inventions and the start of mass production of honey, with John Harbison, "the Bee King of California," leading the way.
Chapter nine looked at the bee and the hive in art and architecture.
The tenth chapter looked at many fascinating topics in modern bee science, such as genetic research on bees (particularly the contributions of the beekeeping monk known as Brother Adam), studies on how bees communicate to one another, how they see the world, and the truth about the dreaded "killer bees."
Chapter eleven looked at the role of various bee products in traditional and modern medicine, including not only honey (including rather odd tasting honeys that are made from certain plants) but pollen, royal jelly (highly labor intensive to collect, miniscule amounts are produced to feed all bees for the first three days of their lives and queens for the rest of their lives), and bee venom (which can now be commercially collected without killing the bee).
The final chapter looked at urban beekeeping in major cities, the threats that bees face today, and what this means for agriculture.
The prologue showed Ellis tagging along with beekeepers harvesting honey from bees in the heather moors of England. I learned several things, such as that bees burrow in search of bare skin when they seek to defend a nest (important to make sure there is a not single stray stitch on a beekeeper's outfit), bees produce a banana-like odor in the air when they sting (attracting other bees), and that the quality and flavor of English honey has varied over time as changing agricultural practices and land uses have altered the types of flowers bees have available to visit.
The first chapter looked at basics of bee biology. Topics addressed include the division of labor in hives between forager bees and house bees and the roles and habits of drones and queens, how nectar is actually gathered and how it is transformed into honey, an introduction to some of the exotic types of honey in the world (both monofloral honeys produced from one flower, such as tree-of-heaven honey and mango honey, and multifloral honeys, produced from nectar gathered from multiple species, such as what may be found in an alpine meadow), the evolution of bees, and the tremendous variety of bees in the world (there are 22,000 species in the world, found from the tropics to the Arctic and from the Himalayas to sea level, a group that includes such odd family members as miner bees - one Brazilian species digs up to 16 feet down - and leaf-cutter bees and nine species of _Apis_, the honeybee, with the two most important in terms of honey production being the eastern honeybee, _Apis cerana_ and _Apis mellifera_, the "most successful bee of all time," the "superbee of planet earth").
The second chapter looked at wild honey gathering, both in the natural world (gorillas, chimpanzees, and bears all love honey) and with early man. Ellis looked at reasons why man might have first started to raid bees for not only their honey but also to eat their larva, ancient cave art depicting honey hunting, and how traditional societies such as the San or bushmen and the Mbuti pygmies gather honey.
The third chapter looked at beekeeping in ancient Egypt, which was surprisingly sophisticated early on with the Egyptians having constructed dried mud hives for their bees and may have practiced migratory beekeeping, keeping hives on boats in the Nile, following the crops that were currently in bloom.
Chapter four looked at the honeybee in ancient Greece and Rome, how bees were viewed in mythology, the writings of Virgil, Aristotle, and Varro on them (Varro in particular wrote of the medicinal properties of propolis or "bee-glue", a sticky dark substance that bees use to seal up their hives), and the advent of cire perdue or the "lost wax" method of casting statues which made use of malleable beeswax.
Chapter five looked at bees in medieval Europe, including the methods (and feudal legalities) of gathering wild honey, the advent of the skep, the domed straw hive that became a major symbol of traditional beekeeping, often placed in bee boles (a sheltered recess in a house or garden wall), the anguish caused by many because of the fact for centuries to come in order to harvest honey one had to kill the hive, the world of mead production and consumption, and the often greater role bees played not in producing honey but in producing beeswax for candles.
Chapter six looked at the foundations of modern science as it was applied to the world of honeybees, including the use of observation hives, microscopes, the first detailed anatomical studies of bees, and the first attempts to solve the problem of collecting honey without killing bees (primitive versions of the wooden box "supers" used by beekeepers today). Also the importance of the honeybee as a political symbol was examined as well.
Chapter seven examined the spread of bees by Europeans to the North America, Australia, and New Zealand, new methods developed by the colonists to track down wild honey supplies, and even the important symbolism of the honeybee to the Mormons.
The eight chapter looked at folklore about bees, including such charming traditions as that hives must be traded or bartered for, never bought and the old country tradition of "telling the bees" and later 19th and 20th century advances in bee science, particularly of one Lorenzo Langstroth (the "father of modern beekeeping") who built the prototype of the modern beekeeper's hive when he discovered the concept of bee space, the amount of room that could be left open around bee combs to allow bees to move, combs to be easily extracted, but not so large as to lead bees to instinctively fill in. The author also discussed other bee-related inventions and the start of mass production of honey, with John Harbison, "the Bee King of California," leading the way.
Chapter nine looked at the bee and the hive in art and architecture.
The tenth chapter looked at many fascinating topics in modern bee science, such as genetic research on bees (particularly the contributions of the beekeeping monk known as Brother Adam), studies on how bees communicate to one another, how they see the world, and the truth about the dreaded "killer bees."
Chapter eleven looked at the role of various bee products in traditional and modern medicine, including not only honey (including rather odd tasting honeys that are made from certain plants) but pollen, royal jelly (highly labor intensive to collect, miniscule amounts are produced to feed all bees for the first three days of their lives and queens for the rest of their lives), and bee venom (which can now be commercially collected without killing the bee).
The final chapter looked at urban beekeeping in major cities, the threats that bees face today, and what this means for agriculture.
June 20, 2019
I enjoyed reading this book. I know I have never said that about a book before. Right. There is so much that I found interesting in this book. It hard to remember it all. My favorite story was about Brother Adam who was a monk at Buckfast Abby who bread honeybees. After he was diagnosed with a heart problem he traveled over 120,000 miles in search of honeybee breeding stock over the next 26 years. Amazing.
I also enjoyed reading about how bees got from the east cost of American to the west coast. I had never thought about that before. I suppose I thought the bees migrated themselves. I never thought that the would have had to be shipped.
It was defiantly wroth the time it took to read the book. I thought there was a lot of great history about honeybees in this book. I am glad I read the it.
I also enjoyed reading about how bees got from the east cost of American to the west coast. I had never thought about that before. I suppose I thought the bees migrated themselves. I never thought that the would have had to be shipped.
It was defiantly wroth the time it took to read the book. I thought there was a lot of great history about honeybees in this book. I am glad I read the it.
April 4, 2020
Charming and insightful book all about the honeybee: the complex dynamics of the hive; what honey, beeswax, venom and royal jelly have been used for through the ages; the bee's scientific and social significance; the growth of beekeeping; and why the bee is the most studied creature ever.
The author has traveled the world to sample honeys of all varieties and just reading about it makes you want to make some toast and slather on the sweet stuff.
Recommended to anyone who needs to take a break from the human world and learn about the richness of the honeybee world!
The author has traveled the world to sample honeys of all varieties and just reading about it makes you want to make some toast and slather on the sweet stuff.
Recommended to anyone who needs to take a break from the human world and learn about the richness of the honeybee world!
September 17, 2019
The wonders of bees - an individual worker makes less than half a teaspoon of honey in a lifetime for all its busyness. And the wonders of beekeepers like the blind Huber, subject of a fantastic Sara George novel called The Beekeeper’s Pupil, and the folk custom of “telling” the bees of events, as depicted in Larkrise to Candleford. Mixed in was an uncanny number of AARGH! moments – were they deliberate? “thoughts swarmed in”, “bees’ legs make humans’ look pedestrian”.
May 22, 2020
A lot of words here but not much info. And some of that is wrong. She writes that bees are studied the most, second only to “man”. This book was published in 2019, perhaps the author would care to join the rest of us in the 21sr century and just say “human”? Then she says bees are have hairy legs—and all “six pairs” of legs are hairy. At which point I threw the book across the room, as a mutant 12-legged bee was about to attack me.
August 21, 2021
Everything you wanted to know about Honeybees - and then some. This charmingly written book discusses the honeybee with chapters from "In the Beginning: Evolution" and "Wild Honey" to "Do Bees Dream?" It's not a straight scientific study, but reads as what it is, a book written by an educated enthusiast who travelled the world investigating what we know about honeybees.
April 9, 2018
This book was extremely well-written- very poetic in some sections. But, on top of that, was chock full of really interesting information and offered up great resources to continue reading into the more anthropological and historical veins of bee-knowledge.
July 4, 2020
Part scientific reflection, part rumination, part history; the mix can make for casual reading but also creates a somewhat fragmented read. If you want some light reading on bees and honey, you may enjoy the book.
March 7, 2021
A really well written and easily digestible history of the honey bee, with some wholesome anecdotes sprinkled in from the author. I love how you travel forward in time as the book goes on, learning chronologically the discoveries of the bees’ inner workings.
April 2, 2022
Undisciplined writing, felt like reading an undergrad paper. Not a fan of characterizing Joseph Smith's death as a "lynching" or intimating that the Mormon embrace of honeybee symbolism had anything to do with polygamy. I about lost it at the honey pseudoscience at the end.
July 17, 2022
A well-researched, if exhaustive, account of bees, honey, pollen, and beekeeping. The early chapters indulge in some pretty rampant fact-free speculation about the ancient world, but Ellis' research gets considerably better in later chapters.
May 12, 2019
This book was interesting. I learned a lot.
July 7, 2024
Love bees, love honey. There were some interesting tidbits but altogether not as fascinating as hoped
March 21, 2011
Ellis begins slowly but quickly warms up to her subject: the history of the honeybee. Once she gets going, she writes a steadily impressive book that is often engrossing.
The introduction, a random piece about heather honey in her native England, is meant to give context. The first chapter also intends to set the table, with some physiological background on bees. Other authors do these kind of set pieces and bee overviews better; the reader who knows the first thing about the difference between a drone and a worker, and how bees and flowers have a symbiotic relationship could easily skip ahead.
35 pages in, Ellis finally begins her history. For the next 200 pages, she boils down formidable research to a truly engaging sequence of facts famous and obscure. We hear of course of the early cave-paintings, beekeeping monks in medieval times, Jan Swammerdam, who--like a worker bee--died of exhaustion, the blind bee researcher François Huber, and the modern innovators like Langstroth and Brother Adam.
That story is a pro-forma history of beekeeping, found in almost any introduction to beekeeping or bees. What makes this book succeed is Ellis' first-hand, exhaustive research, and her concision of it. At times relentless, her writing presents interesting note after interesting note. From Egyptian embalming practices (corpses soaked in honey) to Greek mead, to the history of candles, the practice of "telling the bees," to the bee's impact on our contemporary culture, Ellis seems to cover everything.
Indeed, the book could be at least 500 pages long (for that, one can always look to Eva Crane's encyclopedic World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting). Even as a shorter book, this reads like a compendium, with a chronology but no narrative. If her subject is "honey," the book is a label listing its cultural weight and origin, rather than a transporting essence itself.
It'll take another writer, or a different book, to supply more than this particular distillation. Still, it's a prodigious effort: with its excellent bibliography and thorough index, this book should be a handy reference and good introduction to the history of the honeybee.
*
WHY I READ THIS BOOK: ongoing bee research.
The introduction, a random piece about heather honey in her native England, is meant to give context. The first chapter also intends to set the table, with some physiological background on bees. Other authors do these kind of set pieces and bee overviews better; the reader who knows the first thing about the difference between a drone and a worker, and how bees and flowers have a symbiotic relationship could easily skip ahead.
35 pages in, Ellis finally begins her history. For the next 200 pages, she boils down formidable research to a truly engaging sequence of facts famous and obscure. We hear of course of the early cave-paintings, beekeeping monks in medieval times, Jan Swammerdam, who--like a worker bee--died of exhaustion, the blind bee researcher François Huber, and the modern innovators like Langstroth and Brother Adam.
That story is a pro-forma history of beekeeping, found in almost any introduction to beekeeping or bees. What makes this book succeed is Ellis' first-hand, exhaustive research, and her concision of it. At times relentless, her writing presents interesting note after interesting note. From Egyptian embalming practices (corpses soaked in honey) to Greek mead, to the history of candles, the practice of "telling the bees," to the bee's impact on our contemporary culture, Ellis seems to cover everything.
Indeed, the book could be at least 500 pages long (for that, one can always look to Eva Crane's encyclopedic World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting). Even as a shorter book, this reads like a compendium, with a chronology but no narrative. If her subject is "honey," the book is a label listing its cultural weight and origin, rather than a transporting essence itself.
It'll take another writer, or a different book, to supply more than this particular distillation. Still, it's a prodigious effort: with its excellent bibliography and thorough index, this book should be a handy reference and good introduction to the history of the honeybee.
*
WHY I READ THIS BOOK: ongoing bee research.
November 3, 2015
The brief interesting parts of this book just don't make up for the mess that is the rest. Ellis seems intent on writing overly poetic language and interjecting her own personal anecdotes into this "history." The organizational structure is shotty, it seems like she wanted to start with a chronological history, but got wildly off track. This book really suffers from not knowing what genre it is. It ends up not being a history, a poem, a memoir, a scientific study, or a persuasive opinion piece; but instead is a mish-mash of whatever the author feels at the time. And I was left really wanting the history that was promised.
The most frustrating part of this book for me is the chapter called "Rediscovery," which is a chapter on the medicinal/nutritional value of honey/bee products, that is literally only supported with anecdotes. Not once in this chapter does Ellis cite a study on how pollen, royal jelly, or honey has been proven to do anything, but she certainly quotes a lot of people believing it. I'm all for traditional remedies, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't study them to make sure they work. And the studies are definitely out there. Why aren't they in this book? Because they all disprove her arguments? That's all the reader can be left to suspect, which is unfortunate.
Another failure of her ability to use scientific evidence comes from her section on a specific chemical used to kill the varroa mite. Ellis gets only as scientific to say that it "work[s] by disrupting the nervous system: this is serious stuff." Lots of "serious stuff" chemicals are used safely, and she completely fails to offer any proof of the real consequences of this chemical or even to explain whether misuse is common/easy. This book relies on a naive reader that reads "chemicals" and thinks BAD, reads "bees/nature" and thinks GOOD, and doesn't care to think critically and ask for proof on the details.
The most frustrating part of this book for me is the chapter called "Rediscovery," which is a chapter on the medicinal/nutritional value of honey/bee products, that is literally only supported with anecdotes. Not once in this chapter does Ellis cite a study on how pollen, royal jelly, or honey has been proven to do anything, but she certainly quotes a lot of people believing it. I'm all for traditional remedies, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't study them to make sure they work. And the studies are definitely out there. Why aren't they in this book? Because they all disprove her arguments? That's all the reader can be left to suspect, which is unfortunate.
Another failure of her ability to use scientific evidence comes from her section on a specific chemical used to kill the varroa mite. Ellis gets only as scientific to say that it "work[s] by disrupting the nervous system: this is serious stuff." Lots of "serious stuff" chemicals are used safely, and she completely fails to offer any proof of the real consequences of this chemical or even to explain whether misuse is common/easy. This book relies on a naive reader that reads "chemicals" and thinks BAD, reads "bees/nature" and thinks GOOD, and doesn't care to think critically and ask for proof on the details.
April 26, 2008
I’d certainly recommend it if you’re at all interested in the historical development of beekeeping and honey production (I’m aware that’s probably a big “if”). It’s written for the lay person with a light, anecdotal style and is fairly entertaining, as far as these things go.
I think one of my favorite bits involved the author, Hattie Ellis’ trip to Sicily, to a community whose fame as a top-quality honey producer goes all the way back to classical Rome.
“As I sat at the table, eating and drinking, I noticed how everything on the table -- the cheeses, honey and bread, the white wine from Marsala -- was a form of gold. The wine and the honey held the same hue, the cheeses a paler shade, the bread’s crust a darker one. Each of these foods -- not least the honey -- was virtually unchanged from ancient times... It was here that I finally understood how honey had been eaten in the same way for millennia; and how centuries could dissolve and yet form a whole. ‘The past is not over,’ William Faulkner said. ‘In fact, it’s not even past.’”
I also loved her slightly anthropomorphic description of the male bees’ role in the hive during her educational chapter on how bee societies function. I’m probably not alone in that; most women find the idea of the worker bees’ giveth-and-taketh-away attitude towards quote-unquote “lazy” drones amusing (“A beekeeper may see the pathetic sight of dozens of drones shivering outside the hive on an autumnal day.”). Judging from this book, apparently gender politics is a slender but brilliant recurring thread in all discussion of bee behavior.
So, yeah. A good book. Especially since they say one of the best effects a book can have it to excite the reader to action. What did I do immediately upon completion of Sweetness and Light? I ate honey.
I think one of my favorite bits involved the author, Hattie Ellis’ trip to Sicily, to a community whose fame as a top-quality honey producer goes all the way back to classical Rome.
“As I sat at the table, eating and drinking, I noticed how everything on the table -- the cheeses, honey and bread, the white wine from Marsala -- was a form of gold. The wine and the honey held the same hue, the cheeses a paler shade, the bread’s crust a darker one. Each of these foods -- not least the honey -- was virtually unchanged from ancient times... It was here that I finally understood how honey had been eaten in the same way for millennia; and how centuries could dissolve and yet form a whole. ‘The past is not over,’ William Faulkner said. ‘In fact, it’s not even past.’”
I also loved her slightly anthropomorphic description of the male bees’ role in the hive during her educational chapter on how bee societies function. I’m probably not alone in that; most women find the idea of the worker bees’ giveth-and-taketh-away attitude towards quote-unquote “lazy” drones amusing (“A beekeeper may see the pathetic sight of dozens of drones shivering outside the hive on an autumnal day.”). Judging from this book, apparently gender politics is a slender but brilliant recurring thread in all discussion of bee behavior.
So, yeah. A good book. Especially since they say one of the best effects a book can have it to excite the reader to action. What did I do immediately upon completion of Sweetness and Light? I ate honey.
March 11, 2009
Just finished this last nite. It is a very good book about the history of bees from cave painting thru about 2000. I really liked this book and would like to buy it so I can underline and post it note the damn thing to death. Plus she has an awesome bibliography and references that make me want to go out and get MORE bee books.
My only complaint is the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book is very thorough.. the last part seems hurried. Like she was running out of time for the due date with her publisher. Perhaps it could have been edited a bit better so that falling off wasn't so heavy handed, but then I would probably lose my favorite parts of the 1/2 half of the book. I liked Sweetness & Light very much and would like to re-read it. But I think I will read Robbing the Bees by Bishop first before I re-read this one. (well there is a silkworm book on my list and THEN robbing the bees)
Things I did not know. Like how honey is antimicrobial and when used in wound dressings creates hydrogrogen peroxide. It is one of the only effective treatments for MRSAs b'c it does not use antibiotics. Plus there was lots of talk about the symbolism of honeybees and how they were used at different times (virtue in victorian times, work ethic in the mormon church, etc). And there was a really cool description of a viewing hive that had a glass tube in the home so the bees could come down from the hive and visit and be watched while entertaining guests!! I SO want to know what that looked like.
This, of course, makes me want to have bees now more than ever. If only I owned this apt and could keep them on the roof!!! Talks with Amy while we were in ME make me think more seriously about getting bee tattoos on my feet. perhaps a skep on one side and a very detailed honeybee on the other. Bumblefeet Amy calls them and it makes me want to laugh!
My only complaint is the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book is very thorough.. the last part seems hurried. Like she was running out of time for the due date with her publisher. Perhaps it could have been edited a bit better so that falling off wasn't so heavy handed, but then I would probably lose my favorite parts of the 1/2 half of the book. I liked Sweetness & Light very much and would like to re-read it. But I think I will read Robbing the Bees by Bishop first before I re-read this one. (well there is a silkworm book on my list and THEN robbing the bees)
Things I did not know. Like how honey is antimicrobial and when used in wound dressings creates hydrogrogen peroxide. It is one of the only effective treatments for MRSAs b'c it does not use antibiotics. Plus there was lots of talk about the symbolism of honeybees and how they were used at different times (virtue in victorian times, work ethic in the mormon church, etc). And there was a really cool description of a viewing hive that had a glass tube in the home so the bees could come down from the hive and visit and be watched while entertaining guests!! I SO want to know what that looked like.
This, of course, makes me want to have bees now more than ever. If only I owned this apt and could keep them on the roof!!! Talks with Amy while we were in ME make me think more seriously about getting bee tattoos on my feet. perhaps a skep on one side and a very detailed honeybee on the other. Bumblefeet Amy calls them and it makes me want to laugh!
June 6, 2015
This is a lovely and readable book about the history of the honeybees. Beginning with the earliest evidence of honey gathering by our distant forbears, the book traces the evolution of man's interaction with bees. The author describes the first attempts at beekeeping and the techniques, which didn't change for millenia, until a century or so ago when hive design was improved allowing collection of honey without harming the bees, a big improvement over the ancient skeps.
The book traces the developing interest and scientific inquiry about exactly what and how the honeybees work together, reproduce, collect honey and pollen, pollinate plants, defend their hives and swarm to create new hives. Their lives are complicated and hundreds of years of study and observation finally elucidated the functioning of the bees.
The author also discusses the honeybee in art and literature and its place as an icon of communal harmony and industry. Bees surround the doorway sculpture of the Holy Family in the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona by Antonio Gaudi, for example.
She describes the many and varied flavors of honey produced by nectar from various plants in many different locations.
The European honeybee was absent from the Americas until brought here by settlers. The productive but aggressive African bees were introduced for study in Brazil but were accidentally allowed to escape, swarming northwards until they reached the southern United States. (They are not likely to reach the northern areas because of their low tolerance for colder temperatures.)
History, biology, travel, taste, and philosophy are intertwined in this book, which praises the bees, and rightly so. If not for their work, our lives would be less sweet- and many of the fruits and vegetables, not to mention the flowers, which color our world would not exist!
The book traces the developing interest and scientific inquiry about exactly what and how the honeybees work together, reproduce, collect honey and pollen, pollinate plants, defend their hives and swarm to create new hives. Their lives are complicated and hundreds of years of study and observation finally elucidated the functioning of the bees.
The author also discusses the honeybee in art and literature and its place as an icon of communal harmony and industry. Bees surround the doorway sculpture of the Holy Family in the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona by Antonio Gaudi, for example.
She describes the many and varied flavors of honey produced by nectar from various plants in many different locations.
The European honeybee was absent from the Americas until brought here by settlers. The productive but aggressive African bees were introduced for study in Brazil but were accidentally allowed to escape, swarming northwards until they reached the southern United States. (They are not likely to reach the northern areas because of their low tolerance for colder temperatures.)
History, biology, travel, taste, and philosophy are intertwined in this book, which praises the bees, and rightly so. If not for their work, our lives would be less sweet- and many of the fruits and vegetables, not to mention the flowers, which color our world would not exist!
February 17, 2016
I was expecting an in-depth book about bees and honey, but instead I received a history of the human relationship with bees, aka beekeeping.
The majority of the book is a well-researched timeline of how beekeeping evolved through history, with Hattie’s stories from her own personal quest for information liberally thrown into the mix. The rest of the book discusses how we have been trying to figure out bees for centuries – other than ourselves, the honeybees is the most researched living thing in history – and how the bee has influenced other areas of our lives.
In Architecture: Did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by the bee? He incorporated hexagonals (just like a honeycomb) into his building designs from the 1920s onward. This reminded me of the odd hexagonal shaped rooms in my high school. My friends and I had all wondered at one time or another – why are the classes so funny shaped?
In health: Did you know that honey protects wounds from infection with its anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties? Or that in both lab and clinical cases, honey has been shown to be effective against MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant “superbug”?
In literature: Sylvia Plath (her husband kept bees and her father was an entomologist who wrote about bumblebees) wrote a sequence of “Bee Poems” near the end of her life that used bees and beekeeping as metaphors for her life.
There are more interesting stories and facts in Sweetness and Light and by the end of it all, I had a much better understanding of beekeeping, bee-breeding, and our relationship with honeybees. With the recent epidemic of dying bees, it’s more important than ever to take a closer look at how humans interact with these amazing creatures. Honeybees are vital to the survival of our planet and for a total beginner like me, Sweetness and Light was a perfect introduction.
The majority of the book is a well-researched timeline of how beekeeping evolved through history, with Hattie’s stories from her own personal quest for information liberally thrown into the mix. The rest of the book discusses how we have been trying to figure out bees for centuries – other than ourselves, the honeybees is the most researched living thing in history – and how the bee has influenced other areas of our lives.
In Architecture: Did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by the bee? He incorporated hexagonals (just like a honeycomb) into his building designs from the 1920s onward. This reminded me of the odd hexagonal shaped rooms in my high school. My friends and I had all wondered at one time or another – why are the classes so funny shaped?
In health: Did you know that honey protects wounds from infection with its anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties? Or that in both lab and clinical cases, honey has been shown to be effective against MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant “superbug”?
In literature: Sylvia Plath (her husband kept bees and her father was an entomologist who wrote about bumblebees) wrote a sequence of “Bee Poems” near the end of her life that used bees and beekeeping as metaphors for her life.
There are more interesting stories and facts in Sweetness and Light and by the end of it all, I had a much better understanding of beekeeping, bee-breeding, and our relationship with honeybees. With the recent epidemic of dying bees, it’s more important than ever to take a closer look at how humans interact with these amazing creatures. Honeybees are vital to the survival of our planet and for a total beginner like me, Sweetness and Light was a perfect introduction.
July 7, 2012
Just utterly lovely. Hattie Ellis really knows how to turn a succinct yet rich and beautiful phrase. It's challenging to find nonfiction that isn't upsetting in some way (i.e. about climate change, or the financial crisis) and that I can enjoy before bed so I can actually sleep. This is such a book, though it is packed with facts and serious; but many passages, and Ellis's language alone, also make you smile while reading them.
I marveled at the topically and temporally diverse anecdotes Ellis wove together and centered around the topic of the bee, and admire the time that must have gone in to doing so. There are just so many little snippets that come together to enrich the subject, even etymological ones, such as on page 81, in which Ellis notes what may be the origin of "hackles up" (hackles being straw hats for hives, to keep rain out) and on page 70, "sans cere", meaning without wax, which became "sincere."
I have always respected and loved bees (despite a life-threatening allergy to a few of them) but am even more impressed at the miracle of nature they are, at how long they have been with us, and how hard they work to provide us with honey, all of which Ellis covers. After learning that a worker bee spends the brief six weeks of her life to make just 1/4 teaspoon of honey, for instance, I will never ever waste any again.
I marveled at the topically and temporally diverse anecdotes Ellis wove together and centered around the topic of the bee, and admire the time that must have gone in to doing so. There are just so many little snippets that come together to enrich the subject, even etymological ones, such as on page 81, in which Ellis notes what may be the origin of "hackles up" (hackles being straw hats for hives, to keep rain out) and on page 70, "sans cere", meaning without wax, which became "sincere."
I have always respected and loved bees (despite a life-threatening allergy to a few of them) but am even more impressed at the miracle of nature they are, at how long they have been with us, and how hard they work to provide us with honey, all of which Ellis covers. After learning that a worker bee spends the brief six weeks of her life to make just 1/4 teaspoon of honey, for instance, I will never ever waste any again.
July 5, 2016
All-in-all I would describe this book as, "enjoyable". It does fail, however, in combining both eloquence and information seamlessly - diverging away from relevance fairly frequently. For example, I'm not sure how the fact that, Dr. John Wilkins married Robina - sister to Oliver Cromwell - during the Commonwealth, is at all relevant to beekeeping. I personally found these side facts distracting. I couldn't tell you what John Wilkins contributed to bee husbandry at this time, but I will forever remember the name of his wife because it was an unusual anecdote to include and that pulled me away from the story. There are many of these instances throughout this book.
The flowery language also borders on the excessive side, but it is more interesting than reading a dry scientific text. I guess the question to really ask is, did I learn things? Yes. This book was full of a lot of fun facts that I found engaging. It's not meant to be a science text, but a historical recount and I think Ellis does that well. What's more, her use of descriptive language made it an easy read and one I would recommend to any one interested in beekeeping or entomology.
The flowery language also borders on the excessive side, but it is more interesting than reading a dry scientific text. I guess the question to really ask is, did I learn things? Yes. This book was full of a lot of fun facts that I found engaging. It's not meant to be a science text, but a historical recount and I think Ellis does that well. What's more, her use of descriptive language made it an easy read and one I would recommend to any one interested in beekeeping or entomology.
February 16, 2013
This book surprised me in the best possible way. There was something about it's unassuming appearance that lowered my expectations. I assumed it was going to be either very dry, or very badly written. I was dead wrong.
While this book won't provide you with copious amounts of information about how to raise bees or collect honey, it provides all sorts of information about the history of honey and how beekeeping has changed throughout the centuries, as well as some basic information about some of the worlds biggest beekeepers. It's a great choice for anyone who has a passing interest in beekeeping or honey. I found her telling of how the plight with the African Bees started. I'd never heard the full story before.
I found the authors writing to be very fluid and smooth and her stories were interesting enough I actually looked up a few of the beekeepers she mentioned and wrote down the name of a movie she mentioned. I thought this was an excellent book.
While this book won't provide you with copious amounts of information about how to raise bees or collect honey, it provides all sorts of information about the history of honey and how beekeeping has changed throughout the centuries, as well as some basic information about some of the worlds biggest beekeepers. It's a great choice for anyone who has a passing interest in beekeeping or honey. I found her telling of how the plight with the African Bees started. I'd never heard the full story before.
I found the authors writing to be very fluid and smooth and her stories were interesting enough I actually looked up a few of the beekeepers she mentioned and wrote down the name of a movie she mentioned. I thought this was an excellent book.
June 12, 2013
I really liked geeking out on bees with this one. REALLY detailed history of a topic that is often not really covered in such depth.
There's not a lot here about the biology of bees... you have to go in knowing your bee basics to really enjoy a lot of what is here. It is also very British -- she keeps this topic at arm's length in a way that sometimes seemed to beg for a bit more personal narrative. The chapter I liked best was the first one where she really described IN DETAIL the beekeeper she was visiting with! I wanted to see more of her, here more about her, in order to get a better sense of what she thought of the history she was writing about here.
That said, this would be the perfect gift for the beekeeper in your life. Or the history lover. Or the honey lover. Or the science geek. Or the Brit who loves to put a spot of sweetness in that tea.... well, you get the picture...
There's not a lot here about the biology of bees... you have to go in knowing your bee basics to really enjoy a lot of what is here. It is also very British -- she keeps this topic at arm's length in a way that sometimes seemed to beg for a bit more personal narrative. The chapter I liked best was the first one where she really described IN DETAIL the beekeeper she was visiting with! I wanted to see more of her, here more about her, in order to get a better sense of what she thought of the history she was writing about here.
That said, this would be the perfect gift for the beekeeper in your life. Or the history lover. Or the honey lover. Or the science geek. Or the Brit who loves to put a spot of sweetness in that tea.... well, you get the picture...
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