Andrew Smith’s After Dinner Talk

at the
BTS February Lectures

In Search of Mexico ’s Brachypelma Red Leg Tarantulas - Along the Pacific Slopes of the Sierra Madre Mountains

Now On DVD – Price £10 including p/p

For the last five years at the British Tarantula Society February Lectures, Andrew Smith has delivered the after dinner talk - to what has become Europe’s most prestigious meeting of the world’s leading breeders, academics and tarantula enthusiasts. All of these individuals, many of whom have travelled great distances, gather together (over what is the most eagerly awaited weekend of the tarantula social calendar) to talk and share information about one subject – tarantula spiders. One of the highlights of this weekend is Andrew Smith’s annual lecture.

Andrew Smith (Chairman of the BTS, Research Associate of the BMNH and Fellow of the Zoological Society of London) is a world-renowned lecturer, writer and arachno-historian. For thirty years he has travelled the world in search of tarantula spiders and over that time has published three major reference works and hundreds of papers on the subject of tropical arachnids. He has lectured in Europe, America and the Far East and is renowned for his astonishing field photographs and original research material – much of which, he has gathered on his annual field trips abroad and in forays to museum archives all over the world. It is this refreshing originality that has made him a world-class lecturer of distinction.

This year’s lecture primarily follows in the footsteps of the great Victorian tarantula collectors, Berthold Seemann and Dr. H. H. Smith but it also includes a more recent addition to these hallowed figures, the German collector Peter Klaas. Accompanied by his long term travelling companion Paul Carpenter - and this year joined by Dr Stuart Longhorn and the Mexican arachnologist Roberto Rojo - Andrew Smith takes you along the Pacific coast of Mexico in search of the beautiful Red Leg Tarantulas – Brachypelma emilia, Brachypelma smithi, Brachypelma baumgarteni, Brachypelma boehmei and Brachypelma klaasi. Using professional standard digital SLR cameras, Andrew and Paul have photographed both the males and females of all of these beautiful spiders, thus giving the viewer the opportunity to revel in the most sumptuous images ever taken in the field – many of which, are unique. The viewer will also get the opportunity to share the excitement of being part of a field expedition, led by two of the most experienced collectors in the world. As an added extra, the DVD includes 35 additional images, which were not shown in the original talk at the BTS February Lectures on the 23rd Feb. 2008. Total number of images 185.

Copyright Andrew M. Smith and Michael Fitzgerald 2008.

DVD Format PAL. Length approximately 185 colour & b/w images. Copyright/images - Andrew M. Smith & Paul Carpenter & Roberto Rojo.

Narrator and writer - Andrew M. Smith. Producer - Michael Fitzgerald.

Engineer – Malcolm Syer/ImageVideo. Recorded at – Bromley Sound Studios. Cover design - Andrew Smith/Cravitz Printers.

UK Price £10  (14 euros or US $20 – depending on credit card exchange rate) including p/p. To order DVD fitzgeraldbooks@yahoo.co.uk

To discuss booking lectures:    andrewmsmithuk@yahoo.co.uk

Payment: Please send all UK cheques or credit card details (credit card number, expiry date and security number - the last three numbers on the name strip) to Fitzgerald Publishing 89 Ermine Road, Ladywell, London SE13 7JJ. UK . Please include address and telephone number. For payment by credit card you can either write or ring 0208 690 0597 leaving details on answer machine (from abroad 00442086900597). Please also send confirmation of order, plus name, mailing address and telephone number by e-mail. For European buyers, please note that we cannot accept euro cheques – please pay by credit card.

Note - trials indicate that this PAL DVD can be played on USA DVD machines, dedicated for television use, which have a PAL format function. It can be played on all Apple computers and American PC computer systems equipped with a DVD reader. If you wish to order our PAL DVD and intend to pay by dollar cheque/check payments – please send order ($20) to: Fitzgerald Publishing – 7606 Leviston Avenue, El Cerrito, California, 94530 USA .  DVD will be sent from UK by airmail. To order using a credit card please contact us by e-mail, telephone or write to our UK address.