Val's father had been collecting pollen, experimenting with slide preparation, viewing it down his microscopes and making drawings for several years.
The idea for this book crystallised after the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) asked Val's father to make several sets of slides for their beekeeping proficiency examinations.
It transpired these slides, his pollen drawings and photos of the flowers they came from would provide a useful reference book.
The different sizes and shapes of pollen, and their adaptation for different dispersal methods made for an interesting exercise as Val's father and Val herself arranged the text against the pollen and flower images.
The task of writing the introduction, going back to catch up on reasonable quality photographs of the flowers, checking absolutely everything, and organising it into a book took several months. Friends enthusiastically helped with tracking down flowers at the right time of year and photographing them, and we finally phblished the first edition at the 2015 National Honey Show. It sold out very quickly at the show, and after a speedy reprint, we moved to the second edition