The opening pages of Liquid Gold: Bees and the Pursuit of Midlife Honey by Roger Morgan-Grenville offer a delightful window into the distinctly British adventure about to unfold in this entertaining memoir. A chance meeting between two cricket fans at a pub in West Sussex leads to a beekeeping partnership, and for the author the benefits go far beyond anything he could have imagined. His memoir is a toast to the humble honeybee, the joys of unexpected friendship, midlife adventures and the slow, deliberate rhythm of nature.
Morgan-Grenville (Unlimited Overs) and his acquaintance from the pub, Duncan, began their new venture in the same way many such ventures begin: with a Google search, since they knew nothing about bees. Before long they acquired a honeybee colony from a third-generation Ukrainian bee farmer in Oxfordshire and launched their enterprise. Liquid Gold is fascinating for the insights it shares on the daily lives of bees, from the queen's mating journey to the painstaking process of collecting nectar and the group mentality that helps bees survive winters. The author's dry humor and comic observations on marriage, middle age and the long wait for honey make for a companionable read, highlighted with gorgeous imagery of the English countryside with its charming hedgerows and the near-spiritual experience of tasting one's first honey harvest.
Liquid Gold is a gentle call to action to preserve the dwindling worldwide population of honeybees as well as a reminder that connection to the natural world, no matter how small, is good for the soul. --Shahina Piyarali, writer and reviewer