Nature has perfected the art of deception. Thousands of creatures all over the world - including butterflies, moths, fish, birds, insects and snakes - have honed and practised camouflage over hundreds of millions of years. Imitating other animals or their surroundings, nature's fakers use mimicry to protect themselves, to attract and repel, to bluff and warn, to forage and to hide. The advantages of mimicry are obvious - but how does 'blind' nature do it? And how has humanity learnt to profit from nature's ploys?

"Dazzled and Deceived" tells the unique and fascinating story of mimicry and camouflage in science, art, warfare and the natural world. Discovered in the 1850s by the young English naturalists Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace in the Amazonian rainforest, the phenomenon of mimicry was seized upon as the first independent validation of Darwin's theory of natural selection. But mimicry and camouflage also had a huge impact outside the laboratory walls. Peter Forbes' cultural history links mimicry and camouflage to art, literature, military tactics and medical cures across the twentieth century, and charts its intricate involvement with the dispute between evolution and creationism.

As "Dazzled and Deceived" unravels the concept of mimicry, Forbes introduces colourful stories and a dazzling cast of characters - Roosevelt, Picasso, Nabokov, Churchill, and Darwin himself, to name a few - whom its mystery influenced and enthralled. Illuminating and lively, "Dazzled and Deceived" sheds new light on the greatest quest: to understand the processes of life at its deepest level.

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Winner Of The Warwick Prize For Writing 2011

Peter Forbes, a writer, journalist, and editor with a longstanding interest in the relationship between art and science, is the author of The Gecko's Foot. Since 2004 he has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.

"Forbes... sees with lovely clarity that nature, like art, is a bricoleur, a tinkerer, and that the thrill of it all is not in a stately grand design... but in life’s multiple choices, chances and smallscale experiments: so many possibilities." -Veronica Horwell, The Guardian

"An intriguing and fluent narrative." -Marek Kohn, The Independent

"In a revealing and entertaining review of mimicry and camouflage in nature, art, and war, journalist Peter Forbes explores a wide range of eye-fooling strategies, such as the one discovered by Thayer...Forbes rightly portrays camouflage and mimicry as examples of how natural selection can act in subtle and surprising ways. His book will open your eyes to aspects of the natural world that may have passed you by, unnoticed." -Natural History Magazine

"In this well written and fascinating book, Forbes, a writer and journalist…portrays camouflage and mimicry as examples of how natural selection can act in subtle and surprising ways…This book is a delight to read and should open the eyes of readers to things which have been too well camouflaged for years." -Hamish Kidd, Chemistry World

"An excellent book, scientifically precise in most cases, yet enjoyable for the broadest readership." -Michael Heethoff, BAAE

WINNER OF THE WARWICK PRIZE FOR WRITING 2011

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