Rainbow dust: three centuries of butterfly delight

Preface

Introduction : the painted lady

Meeting the butterfly

Chasing the clouded yellow

Graylings : the birth of a passion

Gatekeepers : collecting with Jean Froissart, John Fowles and Vladimir Nabokov

Lady Glanville's fritillary

At the sign of the chequered skipper

The golden hog or the wonderful names of butterflies

Seeing red : the admiral

Fire and brimstone : butterflies and the imagination

Silver washes and pearl borders : painting butterflies

Endgame : the large blue and other dropouts

The wall or how to protect a butterfly

Envoi : Aurora or the daughter of dawn

Appendix : British butterflies.