Book Review: Turtles of the World

Turtles are perhaps the reptiles with the best public image. People love marine turtles, and all species are instantly recognizable due to their distinctive carapace, which comes in a myriad of shapes, sizes, and colours. They are adapted to many environments including oceans, lakes, forests and deserts. I am sure that if you are of a similar age to myself, you may remember the cultural phenomenon that surrounded four of these crime-fighting animals named after four of the Renaissance greats. However, based almost entirely on the geography of where I grew up, my experience with turtles is quite limited. Unfortunately, we have no native species in the United Kingdom (except the occasional vagrant marine turtle), although I do have some experience with introduced sliders which were once a popular pet – due to the aforementioned ninjas. There are currently more than 350 species known to science and so I was looking for a book to act as a quick guide to species that I have clearly overlooked. I therefore picked up a copy of Turtles of the World: A Guide to Every Family to help fill in some of those large gaps in my knowledge, hoping the information would be in an accessible and user-friendly format.