One little book emerges with extraordinary tales to tell

Everything has been very quiet regarding, 'please take care of this book' in recent months. There was every indication that the little green book had fallen out of the limelight, like so many other passing fads, in our chaotic helter-skelter world.

However, like the age old observation regarding famine or feast, a raft of extraordinary photos, from far flung places have dropped into my inbox.

I am extremely heartened to those readers who have taken the time, to not only take a photograph, but to go through the rigmarole of sending their creations.

In the UK, the media are caught up in the pressure cooker of Brexit, the US is anxiously closing in on mid-terms, to see if Trump will finally be undermined in Congress, and the natural world clamours for attention with its annual jubilee of life-threatening tornados and hurricanes.

The book however, as ever, seems to negotiate its way through the furore and although battered, is being the best it can be and broadcasting its message stoically across the globe.

Below are extraordinary images from Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia, to Tiananmen Square and Guilin in China, as well as a stint in the Cayman Islands, playing with wild rays.

What do we make of these images? Well the natural world is extraordinarily diverse and mesmerisingly beautiful, and human beings are capable of enhancing it with extraordinary architecture, although we are also reminded of the devastation that one species can incur, when a few misguided individuals can be seduced by power. sjc x