Former Marlborough schoolboy Bryan Pinchen has just published the fourth in a series of pocket guides to creepy crawlies with the latest featuring 46 different kinds of bugs.

His previous books, all lavishly hand illustrated, featured ladybirds, bumblebees, grasshoppers and crickets.

Mr Pinchen’s fourth offering is about the Shieldbugs and Leatherbugs of Britain and Ireland and is on sale £8.50 in the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough.

He works as a freelance ecologist for organisations including the Forestry Commission, English Heritage and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Mr Pinchen, whose parents Kath and John live in Geoge Lane, Marlborough, said he had been fascinated in insects since his days at St Peter’s and St John’s schools.