Wilson, Bee 1974-

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Wilson, Bee 1974-

PERSONAL:

Born 1974; married; children: two. Education: Graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge; University of Pennsylvania, M.A.; St. John's College, Cambridge, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Cambridge, England.

CAREER:

New Statesman, London, England, food writer; St. John's College, Cambridge, England, research fellow.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Named Food Writer of the Year by Radio 4, 2002.

WRITINGS:

The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us, John Murray (London, England), 2004.

Contributor to the Times, Times Literary Supplement, and Tatler. Columnist for the Sunday Telegraph magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

Bee Wilson is a historian and food writer whose The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us is not only a study of the bee and its nutritious honey, but also of the way the bee has been viewed throughout history and how its social structure and industriousness are often referenced in comparison with human behavior. The social order of bees, for example, has been held up as a model for monarchy, with its various levels of rank. Wilson writes about our relationship to the bee, and of the uses that have been made from its activities. Honey has been used as a sweetener, a medicine, and in making the alcoholic beverage mead as well as beauty products. Wax from the bee hive has been used to create candles. Honey was once used as embalming fluid by the Babylonians and the Greeks, and architects, including the Freemasons, have long studied and adapted the perfect structure built into hives by bees. A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that "Wilson treats her subject lucidly and humorously, and her book is fascinating." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: "Wilson presents much excellent history both social … and religious" and "offers a wealth of natural science in these handsomely illustrated pages."