Britain is a country mercifully bereft of threatening fauna–or so you might believe. John Lewis-Stempel provides a miscellany of our otherwise benign land’s more fearsome critters

The cold means nothing when the wolf of the waterways turns its dark eyes to your lure or deadbait – it’s time to tame the beast...

Nature’s spiky deterrents–thorns, spines and prickles–may be quick to catch us out, but they can also prove to be a useful ally, discovers Laura Parker

On being told that they had been bitten by a venomous snake, most eight-year-olds would panic. Not Nicholas Jubber; he was not terrified but disappointed by a diagnosis that contradicted his own. Nich

1 PLAY IT SAFE FOR SKIMMERS A lot ...

With a season of winter storms approaching James Batty explains how to make the most of the great bass fishing that comes during or after a big blow