It so happened that, the morning before I began reading this timely and enlightening book about the impact of invasive species, there was an item on Radio 4’s Today programme about the discovery in a reservoir in Berkshire of a colony of quagga mussels, a small, resourceful and fecund bivalve originating in Ukraine. There was an interview with the ecologist leading the research team, introduced with a typical specimen of journalistic hype in which the presenter referred to the quagga as a ‘nasty piece of work’ and alleged that it formed part of what the researchers dubbed ‘invasional meltdown’.

The ecologist then proceeded to portray the little quagga as a menace of the order of John Wyndham’s triffids – poisoning waterways, exterminating native mussels, cutting off water supplies and choking boat propellers. Asked what could be done to ‘stop’ the quagga, the ecologist blathered about this being very challenging