DRAGONFLIES ARE OF particular interest to naturalists because they are lively, beautiful and interesting, and amenable to study without expensive equipment or laboratory facilities. Furthermore, well illustrated field guides make it relatively easy to recognise the British species. An earlier New Naturalist, published in 1960, did much to bring the interest of dragonfly biology to the attention of naturalists, and to stimulate further research. Since then, dragonflies have become popular among both amateur naturalists and research workers; they have been transformed from an enigmatic group of minority interest to a focus of enthusiastic amateur study and exciting research on diverse aspects of ecology, behaviour and physiology. We now understand much more about what they do, and how and why they do it; so they deserve this completely new New Naturalist. Both of the authors have made major contributions to the study of British dragonflies, and have done much to encourage naturalists to appreciate them. Their book, illustrated with Robert Thompson’s magnificent photographs, will enrich the study of dragonflies by the many naturalists who are already committed to this group, and will surely encourage new recruits to take up that interest.