Robbing the Bees

Robbing the Bees, a Biograpy of Honey, the Sweet Liquid Gold That Seduced the World, by Holly Bishop    Free Press, 2005

Honey has been waiting almost ten million years for a good biograpy.  Bees have been making this prized food - for centuries the world's only sweetener - for millennia, but we humans started recording our fascination with it only in the past few thousand years.  Part history, part love letter, Robbing the Bees is a celebration of bees and their magical produce, revealing the varied roles of bees and honey in nature, world civlization, business, and gastronomy.

To help navigate the worlds and cultures of honey, Bishop - beekeeper, writer, and honey aficionado - apprentices herself to Donald Smiley, a professional beekeeper who harvests tupelo honey in the Florida panhandle.  She intersperses the lively lore and science of honey with lyrical reflections on her own and Smiley's beekeeping experiences.  Its passionate research, rich detail, and fascinating anecdote and illustrations make Holley Bishop's Robbing the Bees a sumptuous look at the oldest, most delectable food in the world.

326 pages

"With this elegant new book, Holley Bishop joins Sue Hubbell and Edwin Way Teale as one of the most engaging ambassadors to bees we've ever had.  Written with grace and wit... as seductive as an open jar of tupelo honey."

- Robert Michael Pyle, author of Chasing Monarchs

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